Chart Scene: Pantera Earns Top Live75 Debut With North American Tour

Pantera debuts on LIVE75 based on box office results reported from a 14-city North American tour in February, an extension of the band’s 2023 trek with special guest Lamb of God that kicked off last summer. This year’s winter tour launched in South Florida on Feb. 3 and continued through the 27th and a final performance in Quebec.

Ticket sales from three venues on the tour earn Rex Brown and Phil Anselmo, the two surviving members of Pantera’s classic lineup, along with Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante, the highest-ranked debut on the chart at No. 17. The sold-ticket total from concerts at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky; New York City’s Madison Square Garden and Centre Vidéotron in Quebec City reached 25,287 for a per-show average of 8,429 with a gross average of $656,527. Among those shows, the New York arena produced the best sales figures with 11,438 tickets sold at a sellout on Feb. 22 for an $888,732 gross.

Along with the headlining shows, the heavy metal veterans also joined Metallica last fall for select dates on the band’s “M72 World Tour” and are booked for five more opening slots on the stadium tour in August. This month, Pantera is headlining “Knotfest”  dates in Australia and is to make a handful of other festival appearances throughout 2024.

On the Artist Power Index, Post Malone has the highest-ranked debut with his return to the chart for the first time since appearing in the Jan. 22 issue based solely on Streaming, Airplay and Social scores. This week he takes the No. 12 position in the ranking following his headlining appearance March 9 at The American Western Weekend at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. The two-day event featured an opening concert March 8 headed by Luke Bryan along with sets by Ghost Hounds and Alli Walker. And on the second night, Aaron Watson opened the concert prior to Malone’s closing set.

The Globe Life Field event also prompted Bryan’s return to the Artist Power Index, along with his headlining performance at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo on March 7. The ticket count for his concert at the annual rodeo event, held at NRG Stadium, totaled 66,107. Also ranked on APX are 50 Cent (No. 13), Jelly Roll (No. 21) and Blake Shelton (No. 41), largely on the strength of their headlining stadium performances at the Houston rodeo. Attendance for Shelton’s concert, which opened the event on Feb. 27, was 59,461, while 50 Cent drew 74,729 fans on March 1. Then Jelly Roll’s show moved 73,494 tickets on March 6, according to concert attendance figures released by the rodeo.

The No. 1 tours on both LIVE75 and the Artist Power Index feature repeat appearances at the top by Luis Miguel and Taylor Swift, respectively, based on recent concerts during their world tours. Miguel’s stint at the top of LIVE75 continues for a second consecutive week, although he also had the highest ranking on the chart for the last two weeks of January. Swift has retained the top spot on APX since the Feb. 19 issue following the opening 2024 dates on “The Eras Tour” that resumed in Japan following a winter break.

In his third appearance on LIVE75 following the kickoff of the “Most Wanted Tour,” Bad Bunny holds the “Heavy Hitter” tag on the chart for a second week with the highest gross average among the 75 ranked tours. His gross average of $4.23 million per show is based on ticket revenue from seven concerts at the first four arenas booked on the tour.

With sellout crowds at each performance, his box office take was $3.8 million at Salt Lake City’s Delta Center, $8.4 million at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, $7.3 million at Footprint Center in Phoenix and $10.1 million at San Francisco’s Chase Center. Along with the tour’s $29.6 million total gross, the overall ticket count so far stands at 106,239. The Puerto Rican rapper’s tour, booked in North American arenas, is set to continue through May 26.

Cold War Kids has the best upward movement on LIVE75, jumping 15 positions in one week to take the No. 39 ranking based on a per-show ticket average of 1,900 from 5,700 sold tickets at three recent shows. The Southern California band played to sellout crowds totaling 1,200 per night at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., March 5-6, and one performance at The Salt Shed in Chicago, Feb. 23, with 3,300 sold tickets. The group kicked off a string of North American headlining dates on Jan. 31 at The Fillmore in San Francisco, the first of 31 shows booked through late March.