Concert Pulse: Elton John Rockets On At No. 10; Fleetwood Mac, Arctic Monkeys, Cher Join

Elton John
Amy Harris / Invision / AP
– Elton John
Will be on the road until 2021 to say goodbye to his fans
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. After the barrage of new entries last week, our Boxoffice department is furiously crunching numbers for the upcoming Year End charts, and another wave of artists has crashed into the weekly Global Concert Pulse chart.
There are no changes in the top five spots, except that Kenny Chesney has overtaken Drake at the No. 5 spot, with an average gross of $4.3 million. Drake has reported 20 shows in the last four months from his recently wrapped “Aubrey & The Three Amigos” tour with Migos, which was averaging $3.9 million per market on the chart.

Taylor Swift, Jay-Z / Beyoncé, and Ed Sheeran have all been touring at the stadium level and will be frontrunners for the coveted No. 1 spot on Pollstar’s Year End charts.

Elton John is the highest new entry on the chart, entering at No. 10 with a $3.2 million average gross. He was averaging 23,976 per market appearance and his average ticket price was hovering around $134.92 for the eight reported shows from the last three months. 

Those reports include gigs at TD Garden in Boston and Madison Square Garden Arena in NYC, and Sir Elton is nowhere close to being done. His “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” farewell tour is already scheduled to run through North America twice and Europe, with dates booked into November of next year. The next scheduled performance is Dec. 6 at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. 


Elton is also going to be the subject of the upcoming biopic “Rocketman,” which will be latest in a series of films about the lives of musicians that have been box office hits.

Arctic Monkeys swing onto the chart at the No. 18 position, with an average gross of $1.8 million on an average 24,685 tickets in nine market appearances. The band recently toured North America to promote its new album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, which came out May 11. 

A highlight of the year was when the rockers played four nights at FlyDSA Arena in Sheffield, England, Sept. 18-22, reporting 51,902 tickets sold and grossed $4.2 million. 

Reports are also filtering in from Fleetwood Mac (No. 20), now without Lindsey Buckingham who is suing them for his unceremonious eviction from the band. A recent report from the band at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., grossed $1.8 million off 12,903 tickets.

Cher (No. 23) has also submitted reports in time for the Year End charts. She is averaging $1.5 million grossed in eight market appearances. Her shows in the last three months include residency gigs at Park Theater At Park MGM Las Vegas and Theater At MGM National Harbor and dates in Australia and New Zealand. Cher is yet another act whose has seen success on the big stage and the silver screen. 

Other new entries on the chart this week are Banda Sinaloense MS, A.R. Rahman, Alejandro Fernández, Barry Manilow, Christina Aguilera, Roberto Carlos, Bryan Adams, Sebastian Maniscalco, Godsmack / Shinedown, Steven Martin / Martin Short, The Tenderloins, Willie Nelson, Jim Gaffigan, and “Paw Patrol Live!”.