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Boxoffice Insider: Usher Debuts New Vegas Residency At The Colosseum
Denise Truscello / Getty Images / Caesars Entertainment – Usher
kicked off his succinctly titled “USHER: The Las Vegas Residency” at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace July 16.
Box-office figures have been reported for Usher following the July debut of his concert residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The R&B star was the theater’s first resident artist to perform following the 16-month pandemic shutdown. He played 14 shows during the summer run, which also marked his return to the stage for the first time since 2018 when he headlined a string of dates in Australia and New Zealand.
He launched the Colosseum production with two concerts on the weekend of July 16-17, followed by three shows each week through Aug. 14. The residency was booked for eight shows during a two-week span with plans to wrap at the end of July, but two more weeks of shows were added in April because of high demand.
Overall, the 14 performances from his first Colosseum engagement produced a sold-ticket tally of 58,856 and a gross totaling more than $12.9 million.
The shows, produced by Caesars Entertainment in tandem with Live Nation, are just the first of the year for Usher. He is set to return to the venue for a second set of concerts, a four-show New Year’s run, beginning on Dec. 28 and continuing through Jan. 1. The Colosseum’s fall schedule features more resident artists including country star Keith Urban, who just completed his five-show run on Sept. 25. Rod Stewart will make his return to the theater Oct. 6-23.
Sting kicks off his residency on Oct. 29 with eight shows planned through Nov. 13, while Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn are set to share the Colosseum stage a final time with nine shows in December. Jeff Dunham has one show each month for the remainder of the year, and Journey will appear for one performance on Dec. 18.
Along with the Usher totals, Caesars Entertainment and Live Nation also presented a recent two-night engagement by Marco Antonio Solís in his first appearance at the Las Vegas performance venue. A total of 7,387 fans attended his shows on Sept. 10-11 in celebration of Mexican Independence Day. The gross from the two concerts topped $1.9 million.
Usher’s Boxoffice history with archival data from live appearances prior to this year includes, most recently, his 2018 shows in Australia and New Zealand. And three years prior to that, his most recent solo headlining tour: the 2014-2015 “UR Experience” trek through North America and Europe. It was the fifth concert tour of his two decade-plus career.
The 2018 Aussie shows were part of the country’s annual “RnB Fridays Live” concert series that took him to five cities during November of that year. Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney all hosted Usher along with Lil Jon, Salt-N-Pepa and a host of other artists for a multi-act concert in stadiums or large outdoor sites in each market. Together, the venues in the five cities moved 163,632 tickets for a gross of $15.7 million during the run promoted by Frontier Touring and Illusive Presents. The highest boxoffice results were found at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on Nov. 10 with a crowd of 51,104 and a sales total of $4.6 million.
The same lineup also appeared at Western Springs Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand, for the country’s “Friday Jams Live” concert on Nov. 18, 2018, also produced by Frontier and Illusive. A stadium crowd of 24,375 attended the event that day with grosses topping $1.7 million.
The earlier “UR Experience” tour ran from November 2014 through the following March with 45 shows at arenas in the U.S., Canada and Europe. The average gross on the tour came to about $686,000 per show with a ticket average of 8,700.