Boxoffice Insider: for KING & COUNTRY’s Boxoffice Success On Christmas Tour

Christian music group for KING & COUNTRY continued a tradition of holiday touring in 2022 with the third annual Christmas tour since releasing their critically acclaimed 2020 album, A Drummer Boy Christmas. The four-time Grammy Award-winning duo, Australian brothers Joel and Luke Smallbone, saw a 14.4% jump in box-office revenue on their recent Christmas tour compared to grosses recorded on the holiday run one year earlier.

With 15 performances from Nov. 26 through Dec. 19, the band’s “A Drummer Boy Christmas Tour: The 2022 Live Experience” grossed $5.51 million, according to ticket sales reported to Pollstar. That’s in contrast to the $4.81 million box-office take from 14 performances in 2021.

With one concert more in 2022, gross averages per show saw a smaller increase, but it still rose 6.79% to $367,160 per show compared to the prior tour’s average of $343,806 per night. Also, the average ticket price in 2022 totaling $46.48 marked an increase of 9.83% compared to the $42.32 ticket price average in 2021.

The ticket price averages in both years are higher than pre-pandemic box-office results for the group’s earlier Christmas tours before the 2020 album debuted. In 2018, they averaged $36.85 per ticket on a 14-show run in November and December that grossed $3.1 million from 85,356 tickets. Likewise, their 2017 holiday tour, a co-headlining effort with Casting Crowns named “A Glorious Christmas,” earned $3.3 million from 101,593 tickets to produce an average ticket price of $32.68 from 13 shows during the same timeframe.

In 2020, after the October release of their Christmas album, for KING & COUNTRY was one of the few concert headliners to stage a live Christmas tour that year. And as was the case for many of the tours that proceeded during the pandemic shutdown, it was experienced from the comfort of one’s own automobile. Presented in a drive-in environment, the tour stopped at 23 parking lots and drive-in locations and grossed $1.7 million from 37,557 tickets.

However, one of the shows on the 2020 tour was not outside in a parking lot. The group also played a socially distanced indoor show at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry House in late November, entertaining 1,058 guests at a live in-person performance that grossed $119,280.

In fact, the Music City venue has hosted the group on each of their holiday tours since the Christmas album’s debut. The 2021 Opry House performance on Dec. 19 was the sole theater event on the tour, as all the other shows were staged at arenas. It also was the finale of the tour and welcomed 8,636 attendees for a gross of $375,723.

The Grand Ole Opry House was also the setting for the finale of the 2022 tour, but the band played two nights instead of one with concerts on Dec. 18-19. The combined gross at both performances reached $608,365 from 12,577 sold tickets, yet the first night of the engagement was also offered to fans virtually. The number of tickets purchased for the Dec. 18 livestream was 4,226 for an additional gross of $87,034.

Again, on the 2022 tour, the Nashville venue was the only theater in the mix. The remaining 13 concerts were all booked at arenas in U.S. cities. While the Opry House date, as the only two-night event, produced the highest gross and attendance, Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, logged the best box-office results among the buildings with single performances. With $563,531 in sales on Dec. 9, the Tampa arena was the only one to top the half-million-dollar mark for a single show. Also, the number of sold seats was 11,465 – the highest count among the arenas on the trek.

For KING & COUNTRY has three other concerts on record at the Tampa arena. In October 2021, they sold 6,408 tickets there, and before the pandemic, their attendance counts were 7,265 in 2019 and 10,108 in 2018 – both from one performance.

Looking at 2022 grosses from other arenas on the trek, four had earnings in the $400,000 range: American Airlines Center in Dallas; Orlando’s Amway Center; Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Four topped $300,000 in sales, and four more land in the $200,000 range