Boxoffice King: Bad Bunny Sets The Bar High

Among the musical artists who hail from Puerto Rico, none have made as dynamic an impact at the box office in 2022 as Latin urban artist Bad Bunny. Indeed, no one from any other area of the world or in any other genre has either. The singer and rapper has racked up more sold tickets and higher concert grosses than any touring artist around the globe, based on reported data from his “El Último Tour Del Mundo” arena trek, which concludes with three shows at Miami’s FTX Arena, April 1-3.

The 28-year-old artist, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, has an overall gross of $83.31 million from 415,747 sold tickets at 26 arena concerts this year through March 22, the date of his most recent show reported as of press time. In comparison, the second-highest cumulative gross for a concert headliner in 2022 is $49 million less than that.

Furthermore, the Pollstar archives show that only two headliners have surpassed that gross amount in the past 20 years during the same time frame: the Rolling Stones with $83.89 million in 2016 and AC/DC with $93.52 million in 2010, and both of those bands were playing stadiums at the time.

Bad Bunny also owns the top gross for a single concert engagement this year with an $11.25 million box office haul at three sold-out shows, March 10-12, at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill. Chicago-area fans showed up in droves and purchased 51,430 tickets at the arena, a ticket count more typical for a stadium event.

That may portend the new normal for the artist, who has planned his first all-stadium trek for later this year. Dubbed “World’s Hottest Tour,” the four-month jaunt through the U.S. and Latin America will launch in Orlando Aug. 5 and will bring him back to Chicago on Aug. 20 with a performance at Soldier Field. Bad Bunny has double plays booked at several U.S. stadiums, including New York’s Yankee Stadium, Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, Houston’s Minute Maid Park, Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium and Inglewood, Calif.’s SoFi Stadium.

Allstate Arena was one of only two venues to book Bad Bunny for three nights on “El Último Tour del Mundo,” along with Miami’s FTX Arena, which will host the tour’s three-show finale.

Five other arenas, though, staged two Bad Bunny concerts on consecutive nights. Among them, the highest totals were logged at the L.A.-area Forum, Feb. 25-26, where Bad Bunny grossed $9.34 million from 32,568 sold seats. Then, engagements at Dallas’ American Airlines Center, SAP Center in San Jose, Calif.; Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Houston’s Toyota Center produced grosses ranging from $5.47 million to $9.34 million, with each venue moving more than 30,000 total tickets.

On average, Bad Bunny’s 2022 tour has had a per-show ticket count of 15,990 and a gross of $3.2 million. For historical perspective, his first tour, 2018’s “La Nueva Religión,” averaged 6,740 tickets and $471,000 grossed per show, based on 44 reported concerts. With shows at arenas and theaters, it began at the end of February and continued through November.

Then, a 2019 headlining tour supporting his first studio album X 100pre, released the previous December, kicked off with a three-show stint at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan that was attended by 48,080 fans for a $3.73 million gross. From 47 concerts reported through early December 2019, the tour took in $51.4 million from 595,406 tickets, an average of 12,668 sold seats and $1.09 million grossed per performance.