Moving Forward: Q1 Recovery In Full Effect

Pollstar’s Q1 recap is the first opportunity to pause for evaluation and assess the state of live entertainment in the early months of a new year. It is an opportunity to recognize the touring artists already making a significant impact at the box office as we pinpoint the highest-grossing tours, the most successful individual performances and the venues that have been most active as the direction of the concert industry in the year ahead begins to unfold.

Because Pollstar’s period of chart eligibility for Q1 begins on Nov. 18 and continues through Feb. 16, the traditional quarterly analysis this time of year generally highlights two types of touring artists: those who hit the road early in the current year as well as those who were active in the final months of the previous one, often in the homestretch of fall tours heading into the holiday season. Many times, the tours that fall in the latter category claim much of the attention in the first-quarter tally.

That’s certainly true this year, and made even more evident given that the No. 1 tour, by legendary rock group Genesis, was determined solely by concerts that occurred from mid-November through mid-December. In fact, looking at the top 10 tours, six earned their ranking based primarily – if not exclusively – on late 2021 event totals. That includes BTS, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Andrea Bocelli, The Rolling Stones and Morgan Wallen. However, three artists – Eric Church, Sebastian Maniscalco and Bad Bunny – had a similar number of dates in both years. Tool was the only act in the top 10 to earn a ranking based solely on performances in January and February.

Regardless of when the concerts occurred, this year’s first-quarter box office results present a reality unique to this year. While 2021’s Q1 recap was a reflection of an industry severely crippled by a pandemic, this year’s analysis is defined by the ongoing process of recovering from it.

Q1 Ticket Sales Charts
Top 100 Tours
Top 100 Arenas
Top 50 Theatres / Top 50 Promoters
Top 50 Clubs

Box office data reported during the first quarter by talent buyers, venues and artist representatives shows a worldwide gross topping $1.09 billion during the three-month eligibility period. That is a sharp and dramatic contrast to the $30 million gross recorded last year, when practically all significant concert activity outside of Oceania was severely restricted. In most places around the globe, and certainly in North America, events that were staged late in 2020 and early in 2021 were generally produced on a small scale. The bulk of all live performances were subjected to slashed seating availability and social distancing. Of course, that’s if there was concert activity at all.

Historical comparisons to Q1 numbers prior to the pandemic shutdown, however, indicate that recovery is still very much a work in progress. Even though this year’s gross is more than 36 times higher than last year’s, it is still down substantially compared to 2020, when worldwide grosses from live shows topped $1.97 billion. And the two years before 2020 had even higher Q1 grosses: $2.33 billion in 2019 and $2.03 billion in 2018. (We must also note that reporting for Q1 this year is still ongoing, and box office totals from the period will grow throughout the year as more is reported.)

Yet, even if there is work to do in the quest to get back to a sense of normalcy and pre-pandemic standards, there are monumental success stories and much to celebrate when discussing the box office results from this year’s first quarter. Among the reported numbers are sales totals from major stadium events with capacity crowds and multi-million-dollar grosses – a situation only possible in New Zealand this time last year. The Q1 stadium dates primarily occurred during November and December as fall tours were wrapping for the year.

One of the stadium-sized events was the Nov. 20 performance on The Rolling Stones’ “No Filter Tour” that landed in the 2022 Q1 time frame. The iconic band’s sold-out show at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, drew 54,854 fans and, like engagments at four other venues on the group’s two-month fall trek, topped $10 million in sales.

BTS set a record early in the quarter with the highest gross for a single engagement when the group racked up a $33.3 million haul over four sold-out Southern California shows at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. With two shows in the last week of November and two more during the first week in December, the total ticket count reached 213,752, also the highest attendance recorded for one concert engagement in Q1.

Bad Bunny also had a stadium event during the quarter with his two sold-out concerts at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Dec. 10-11.

Likewise, Mexican band Panteón Rococó celebrated 25 years together with a three-night run Dec. 10-12 (originally planned for 2020) at Mexico City stadium Foro Sol (see page 18). Both concert engagements together contributed over $11.5 million to the overall gross for Q1.

Also in Mexico City, the Corona Capital Festival and the Coca-Cola Flow Fest drew a combined total of 145,630 music fans to Autodrómo Hermanos Rodríguez, the city’s motorsport racetrack that also houses the Foro Sol venue. The Corona Capital event on Nov. 20-21 welcomed headliners Tame Impala and Twenty One Pilots along with 50-plus other acts, and the Flow Fest on Nov. 27 included Ozuna, Wisin & Yandel and Farruko among the artists on its lineup.

Among concert performers who scored the highest grosses at indoor arena,“King of Country” George Strait stands out based on sales from his residency at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. With a two-show engagement in early December and another two gigs in February, Strait’s grosses totaled $10.08 million from 64,914 sold seats. Sales from these four shows brought his overall gross at the arena to $81.4 million since beginning his residency there in April 2016. In the past six years, his total sold-ticket count there now stands at 561,636.

The artist with the second-highest gross
at an arena is Bad Bunny, who raked in $5.47 million over two sold-out shows at Houston’s Toyota Center. The Puerto Rican rapper sold 30,661 tickets for the engagement on Feb. 16-17.

Genesis follows with the next three highest individual arena grosses, the first at New York’s Madison Square Garden, with $5.31 million grossed on Dec. 5-6. The band’s two-show stand at Bell Centre in Montreal on Nov. 22-23 is next with a $5.3 million take. Then, Genesis’ two shows in Philadelphia at Wells Fargo Center on Dec. 2-3, which logged a gross of $5.21 million.

On Genesis’ No. 1-ranked “The Last Domino? Tour,” those three arena plays were the band’s three highest grossers and also their only engagements in North America with box office earnings that reached the $5 million mark. The tour’s Q1 gross of $46,456,405 includes all of its U.S. and Canada dates except its two-night opener at Chicago’s United Center, which took place Nov. 15-16 and lands outside the quarterly time frame.

The “Last Domino?” trek, promoted by EMC Presents, marked the band’s first tour since reuniting in 2007 for “Turn It On Again: The Tour,” which played stadiums and arenas in Europe and North America. The 2021 tour kicked off with a six-city U.K. run in September and October before heading west across the Atlantic in November. From all its performances in 2021, the tour produced a box office total of $70.2 million at 33 shows with 364,919 sold tickets. The band returned to the road this year, resuming on March 7 for a final European jaunt set to wrap late in the month with a three-night stint at London’s O2 Arena.

After Genesis, BTS ranks second among the top tours with its $33.3 million gross from the four L.A.-area stadium shows, while Eric Church follows at No. 3 overall with a gross sum of $22.25 million during Q1 and an attendance total of 180,158. Since kicking off his “Gather Again Tour” in September, the country star’s most successful show at the box office was a Dec. 18 event at Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C., that brought in $2.17 million in grosses from 19,088 sold seats.

Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco scores a slot among the top 10 tours with his” Nobody Does This” trek, currently booked into the summer months. He was one of
the entertainers who kicked off a new tour last summer, beginning with a Nashville appearance in June. Since that two-show stint at Ryman Auditorium he has grossed over $41 million from 99 performances reported to Pollstar. During the Q1 eligibility period, his gross was $19.87 million from 195,568 sold tickets at 29 shows, earning him the No. 5 ranking.

Among the highest-grossing venues during the first quarter, New York’s Madison Square Garden is the No. 1 arena worldwide based on a Q1 box office total of $32.15 million. The venue had 18 performances reported for a ticket count totaling 249,960. Genesis’ $5.31 million in December was the top gross for a single engagement and the only one to surpass the $5 million threshold. Billy Joel’s sold-out dates in December and February produced a combined gross of $4.87 million, the second highest at the venue, while Andrea Bocelli’s concerts on Dec. 15-16 generated a $4.68 million gross to rank third among the arena’s top grossers in Q1.

Among theaters, New York’s Radio City Music Hall garnered the highest gross with $28.72 million in sales from 251,175 tickets at three events. The Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes accounted for the bulk of the overall gross, with $27.49 million from 240,895 sold seats at the holiday event’s 53 shows during December, even after the rise of the Omicron variant forced the annual extravaganza to cancel two weeks of remaining performances on Dec. 17. Also performing at the theater during Q1 were veteran Latin artist Ricardo Montaner, with a sellout crowd of 4,919 and $608,849 in sales Jan. 28, and Colombian salsa ensemble Grupo Niche, which appeared at the venue Feb. 12, moving 5,361 tickets for a $618,106 gross.

House of Blues Boston scores the top gross among clubs with a 30-show total of $2.04 million. The venue welcomed 57,630 attendees during the first quarter including 4,819 on Dec. 8-9 for Canadian DJ Kaytranada. His ticket total was the highest for a headliner at the club in Q1, as was his $171,920 gross.