Boxoffice Insider: Early Riser Slipknot Eclipsed Virus With European Tour

Hitting the road early in 2020 proved to be beneficial for heavy metal band Slipknot, which was able to complete a six-week arena trek in Europe during the first quarter prior to March’s coronavirus-induced live entertainment shutdown. Europe was the first destination for the Iowa-born road veterans, who also had Asia and a second North American leg scheduled for the first half of 2020.

Later touring plans for the year included a U.K. version of the band’s multi-artist metal festival Knotfest along with an August cruise dubbed Knotfest at Sea.

Ultimately, only the European shows were able to be completed. The Asian dates set for later in March were postponed until January 2021, and the North American itinerary booked to launch on May 30 and wrap on July 18 had to be canceled. The U.K. festival and the cruise were also scrapped due to COVID-19.

Slipknot had been touring since the previous summer in support of its sixth studio album We Are Not Your Kind, released in August 2019. An opening festival run last summer in Europe, a three-month North American leg and fall Latin American appearances were already in the books before this year began.

The band headed to Ireland to kick off the tour’s 2020 European jaunt. Dublin’s 3Arena hosted the first show on Jan. 14, five years to the day after the rockers had last played the venue. Behemoth, which provided support for the entire European stint, kicked off the concert, which grossed $850,265 (758,170€) from 12,356 sold tickets – over 2,500 more sold seats than the previous date, which was part of Slipknot’s “Prepare For Hell Tour.”

Gross earnings recorded at the 2020 Dublin event were also higher than the 2015 total by 25%, with sales topping out at $680,070 (560,116€) for the 2015 show. Concert promoter MCD Productions produced the sold-out performances on both tours.

Box office results reported to Pollstar from the first quarter stretch of European dates show that the “We Are Not Your Kind Tour” averaged about $786,000 per concert from an average of 11,800 sold tickets.

The Live Nation-produced tour was booked at nine arenas in the U.K. and Ireland, followed by dates in 13 other European countries.

Among the shows that were reported, Berlin’s Mercedes-Benz Arena and Utilita Arena in Birmingham, England both showed an attendance tally of more than 14,000. The Birmingham concert’s $994,848 gross was higher than other Utilita Slipknot concerts on record from tours in 2004, 2008 and 2015.

Box office data was only reported from a portion of the 28 European concerts, but based on the averages, the overall gross probably reached about $22 million or more from over 330,000 sold tickets.

Currently, the band is poised to resume its tour in January 2021 with the rescheduled Asian trek. The series of shows in Japan, Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia will kick off with the third edition of Knotfest Japan on Jan. 10-11, 2021 in Tokyo. The slate of bands scheduled to appear at Knotfest 2021 includes Korn, Marilyn Manson, Trivium and Anthrax, along with Japanese bands Man with a Mission, Babymetal, and Coldrain, and a host of other acts. Slipknot first brought Knotfest event to Japan in November 2014 with a two-day festival, and the second edition came two years later in 2016, also staged for two days in November.