Box-Office Projections For Early ’22 Tours

Justin Bieber:
Gabe Ginsberg / Getty Images / RMG – Justin Bieber:
performs during The Event hosted by the Shaquille O’Neal Foundation at MGM Grand Garden Arena on Oct. 2, 2021, in Las Vegas.

Among the artists set to hit the road in 2022, many will be touring for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. And for many of the tours, concert dates have been scheduled, rescheduled and rescheduled again in the almost two years since the live industry shutdown. Yet, even with an eye on potential lingering effects of COVID-19 variants and other factors, hopes are still high for touring headliners hitting the road early in 2022.

One of those artists is Justin Bieber who will launch his long-awaited “Justice” world tour with a Feb. 18 performance at Pechanga Arena in San Diego. It will kick off a 105-show arena and stadium trek through six continents, originally planned to begin in the spring of 2020 but now scheduled throughout this year and until the end of March 2023.
His box-office history shows that gross and sold-ticket averages from his 2016-2017 “Purpose” world tour saw a significant bump compared to averages on his earlier “Believe” trek (2012-2013). With both tours booked primarily in arenas along with a smaller slate of stadium dates, the “Purpose” tour’s arenas produced an average gross 17% higher than the average on “Believe.” Likewise, ticket averages in the same venues were also higher, but by only 7%. His stadium shows, however, saw even more of a jump as “Purpose” averaged 31% more in grosses compared to “Believe” while the sold-ticket average jumped 32%.
Another tour set to launch in February is Imagine Dragons’ “Mercury” tour that begins Feb. 6 at Miami’s FTX Arena, the first of 27 North American arena shows booked through the beginning of May. A 24-show European leg including some festival appearances will follow through mid-July. The band’s most recent jaunt prior to the pandemic was the “Evolve” world tour that began in September 2017 and wrapped 14 months later. The archives show a gross average of $818k from arena and amphitheater dates on the trek based on 105 shows reported. The overall ticket count on the tour topped 1.4 million.
Just three days after the “Mercury” tour launch, Dua Lipa will also begin her 2022 tour at FTX Arena with U.S. and Canadian shows scheduled until April 1. Subsequent tour legs in Europe, Latin America and Oceania will stretch into November in support of the London native’s Future Nostalgia album released in 2020 just prior to the tour’s original launch date, sidelined by the pandemic shutdown and ultimately rescheduled. Her best-attended solo headlining performance is an April 12, 2018, concert in Glasgow, Scotland at the SSE (now OVO) Hydro with 12,658 fans in the house.
Miami’s FTX Arena also hosted the launch for the ill-fated “Where Do We Go?” world tour in 2020 starring Billie Eilish, ultimately cancelled because of COVID-19. Her show on March 9 of that year – the first of only three that occurred before the tour was halted – drew a sellout crowd of 13,498 for a $1.5 million gross. The multiple-Grammy Award winner is set to kick off her new “Happier Than Ever” tour on Feb. 3 of this year, beginning with a performance at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. A nine-week North American leg will be followed by treks through Europe and Oceania.
Bad Bunny will head to Denver for the debut of his “El Último Tour del Mundo” at Ball Arena on Feb. 9. The tour will feature 35 shows in 25 North American cities through early April, ending with a three-night Miami run at FTX Arena. The rapper last toured with his “X100 Pre” tour in 2019, grossing over $50 million from more than half-a-million tickets, based on 47 shows reported. His sold-out Miami date on that tour grossed $2 million from 18,315 tickets.