Q1 Ticket Sales: Promoters Stay On Course

Waterproof Pictures – Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino
speaks during a Keynote Q&A moderated by Emporium Presents’ Dan Steinberg at Pollstar Live! 2018.

The Worldwide Top 50 Promoters chart determined by box office totals reported during the first quarter portrays few, if any, surprises among the well-known companies that are staples in the live entertainment industry. 

Powerhouse promotion giants Live Nation and AEG Presents both retain their traditional vantage points atop the field of contenders. Live Nation’s top ranking is based on 3,815,146 sold tickets tracked from 465 reports of box office activity worldwide. AEG is the only other company to top the    1 million mark in sold tickets during Q1, amassing a ticket sales total of 1,351,420 from 243 reports.

Artists with shows promoted by Live Nation are numerous, but a quick glance at top-attended events in Q1 show familiar names, including Travis Scott who grossed $32 million at 29 shows during the time period to top the list. 

Fleetwood Mac, Metallica, Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Justin Timberlake, Guns N’ Roses, Cher, KISS – all are artists with Live Nation-promoted events in arenas or stadiums during the first quarter. 

Likewise, AEG Presents and its touring partners also impact the top promoters recap with star power as represented by such artists as Elton John, Paul McCartney, George Strait, Eric Church, Kelly Clarkson and Panic! At The Disco.

Among the 50 companies ranked on the top Promoters chart, 32 are headquartered or concentrate their business pursuits in U.S. markets. 

Other activity in North America includes two promoters in Mexico and one that hails from Canada. 

Elsewhere throughout the world, two entities cover markets exclusively in South America, and Australian promoters on the list total seven. Five are U.K. or Irish-based and one company is located in Germany.

OCESA/CIE, fourth in our ranking, is the premier promoter of concerts and festivals in Mexico. Two of their high-profile tour headliners during Q1 were Roger Waters and Luis Miguel with multiple-show runs in major venues. 

The company also works with event producers to bring such draws as Cirque du Soleil and “Disney on Ice” to Mexican markets. A 12-show production of “Disney on Ice presents Frozen” logged the top attendance for any OCESA event during the first quarter with 66,627 tickets sold at Mexico City’s Palacio de los Deportes.

Germany’s Semmel Concerts is credited with promotion of 449 shows based on 282 box office reports to Pollstar. The company has a sold ticket average of 1,414 per show due to so many club and small theater dates in the mix, but there were also arena dates by acts such as German schlager singers Helene Fischer and Roland Kaiser. The best-attended event, however, was Roncalli Weihnachtszirkus, a circus production at Berlin’s Tempodrom with 71,446 tickets sold at 42 performances.

Manchester-based SJM Concerts is the top U.K. entity on the Promoters chart with a total sold ticket count of 389,979 from 70 performances. A large slate of artists with arena-sized tours helped the promoter earn the No. 6 ranking including The 1975, Snow Patrol and Jess Glynne. The Streets racked up the largest number of sold seats for one engagement with 23,593 tickets at five concerts at London’s O2 Academy Brixton in February.