The Best At The Bowl: Top Grossers At Historic Hollywood Venue

b.streisand — **Barbra Streisand performs at the Hollywood Bowl on Nov. 9, 2012, her first show there in 45 years. Photo by Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times / Getty Images**

In the four decades of The Pollstar Era, the century-old Hollywood Bowl has been the site of legendary live events by some of the top performers of the day. Ten major concert headliners head up the slate of entertainers who have produced the highest grosses on record at the Los Angeles venue, all with events promoted by Live Nation/Andrew Hewitt & Bill Silva Presents.

Topping the list is Dave Chappelle who set a new gross record at the venue earlier this year with his four-show engagement from April 28 through May 3. The comedian grossed over $9.7 million and sold a total of 65,153 tickets during the run .

He surpassed Barbra Streisand who held the record for almost 10 years with a gross of $7.81 million from two performances on her 2012-2013 “Barbra Live” tour, the sixth of her long-standing career. The Hollywood Bowl shows wrapped the opening North American leg of the tour and marked her first performance there in 45 years. In its entirety, her tour grossed $66.3 million.

Depeche Mode follows with a $7.45 million box-office haul from four shows, Oct. 12-18, 2017, during the band’s “Global Spirit” tour. The concerts occurred during the tour’s second leg that played 25 North American cities that year. Attendance in Los Angeles was 65,808, which ranks as the highest of all time at the venue among events reported during The Pollstar Era.

The Rolling Stones had a two-show run at the venue in November 2005 during the opening leg of the band’s “A Bigger Bang” tour that spanned over two years. Still ranked among the highest-grossing tours of all time, it ultimately topped half a billion dollars at the box office. The group performed in Hollywood on Nov. 6 and 8 and grossed over $5.95 million from 35,711 sold seats.

Andrea Bocelli rounds out the top five with a $5.86 million take from an appearance in the summer of 2019 – his most recent of seven engagements reported there since 1999. The shows occurred on June 18-19, 2019, and marked his only two-night engagement booked at the amphitheater. He drew 33,658 fans during the run and sold out both concerts.

Eagles follow at No. 6 with a $5.54 million gross from 48,210 sold tickets at three concerts in April 2010 to kick off the second North American leg of the “Long Road Out of Eden” tour. With 180 headlining performances reported from the tour, it grossed $290 million overall from more than 2.2 million tickets.

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers grossed $5.36 million at three performances, Sept. 21-25, 2017, that wrapped the band’s 40th anniversary tour, a finale that was also Petty’s final performance before his untimely death one week later. From 46 shows, the tour grossed $65 million from 693,192 tickets – 49,217 of them at the Bowl.

Paul McCartney is next among the top grossers with a $5.35 million total from 33,916 tickets at two concerts, March 30-31, 2010, the second stop on his “Up and Coming” tour that played the Americas and Europe through June of the following year. Billy Joel is ninth on the list and is also ranked with a $5.35 million gross. He performed three shows at the Hollywood Bowl on May 17, 22 and 27 in 2014, his first ever appearance at the venue, and moved a total of 52,033 tickets.

The most recent addition to the top 10 is Dead & Company with a three-show stint last fall on the final three nights of October. The band played for 50,881 fans during the run and grossed $5.03 million.