Boxoffice Insider: Ticket Sales At Las Vegas Residencies Top $235M So Far In 2024

Ever since Celine Dion christened The Colosseum at Caesars Palace with her debut residency “A New Day…” in 2003, concert residencies featuring major performing artists have been a mainstay of the Las Vegas entertainment scene from year to year. So far in 2024, from January through July, a total of 13 concert headliners have appeared on the charts based on Las Vegas residency performances.

New to the residency landscape this year has been the addition of Sphere with its 18,600 available seats, greatly expanding the number of fans who can watch a single performance. With the new Las Vegas venue hosting residencies, box-office averages in gross and attendance per show are significantly higher in 2024 compared to sales figures from residency productions in past years.

For example, grosses from this year’s 13 residencies – three of them at Sphere – total $235 million from 855,969 sold tickets at 112 performances during the first seven months of 2024. That averages $2.1 million in grosses and 7,643 sold tickets per show, which is about triple the gross and double the tickets compared to either of the past two years. And both of those saw a similar number of residencies reported during the same seven-month period – 11 in 2023 and 13 in 2022.

U2, Dead & Company and Phish, the three bands that have appeared at Sphere, all saw next-level sales results compared to other headliners. They rank Nos. 1, 2 and 3, respectively, for the past seven months based on the number of tickets sold. U2 sold 249,122 tickets at 15 shows since January 1, and Dead & Company sold 240,000, also from 15 shows. The Phish residency, with only four performances, has the third highest ticket count with 65,665 sold seats.

Looking at grosses, U2 tops the list of artists with an $84.7 million box-office haul from the “U2:UV Achtung Baby Live” residency, while Dead & Company’s “Dead Forever” production follows with $71.4 million. Phish lands at No. 4 with a gross of $13.4 million, while Bruno Mars scores the third highest gross with $19.5 million from 10 performances of his residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM in February and June. His ticket count is the fourth highest, numbering 52,117.

The fifth-, sixth- and seventh-highest grosses among the 13 residencies this year are also productions that were staged at Dolby Live at Park MGM. Lady Gaga follows Mars with the next highest total of $13.1 million from 42,398 sold seats at eight performances in June and July. She appeared there with her “Jazz & Piano” show. Mariah Carey’s “The Celebration of Mimi” residency is next with $8.3 million in revenue from 42,096 sold tickets at eight shows in April. Then, Maroon 5 grossed $6.5 million with the band’s “M5LV: The Residency,” also from eight shows at Dolby Live based on 35,900 sold tickets, May 17-June 1.

Appearing at The Theatre at Resorts World, Carrie Underwood is ranked No. 8 among the residency artists based on a $4.7 million total from 36,063 tickets sold at 12 performances. Her “Reflection” residency played six nights there in March and six more in May and June. Luke Bryan also makes the list at No. 11 with his final run of three concerts at the same venue. The shows, Jan. 3-6, were the last performances of his “Luke Bryan: VEGAS” residency that began in February 2022.

Ranked No. 9 is the German band Scorpions based on a run of nine performances held at the Bakkt Theater at Planet Hollywood. The hard rockers racked up more than $4.6 million at the box office from 36,607 tickets sold. They performed at the venue between April 11 and May 3.

Following with the 10th-best gross is Los Bukis, the fifth headliner with a residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM this year. The Mexican grupero band brought in $4.5 million in ticket revenue from 18,420 tickets at four performances in May. Then at No. 12, Barry Manilow has a gross of $1.6 million from his residency at The International Theater at The Westgate. The veteran singer-songwriter drew 13,767 fans to 11 performances between Feb. 15 and March 16. Finally, Toni Braxton and Cedric The Entertainer co-headlined a residency at The Chelsea, playing five shows between April 27 and June 29. The pair grossed $1.4 million from 11,148 sold tickets.

Note that rankings are based solely on box-office data reported to Pollstar. For any residency that does not appear, ticket sales figures may not have been reported yet in 2024.