Bad Bunny Rules Third Consecutive Monthly Boxscore Report With $60 Million Earned in May
Written by djfrosty on June 27, 2024
One more time, Bad Bunny’s Most Wanted Tour secures the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s monthly Top Tours chart. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the Puerto Rican superstar earned $60.4 million and sold 212,000 tickets from 14 concerts in May.
Bad Bunny is no stranger to the pole position, having reigned over the March and April reports, plus four wins in 2022. That matches him with Elton John for the most months at No. 1 since the charts launched in 2019. And while Bad Bunny played three more shows in June, his tie with John is secure for now, as that weekend of shows won’t be enough to score an eighth No. 1.
The Most Wanted Tour started on Feb. 21, with five shows earning $19.5 million before the end of the month. Then, Bad Bunny kicked off his undefeated streak, ruling the March list with $64.6 million (13 shows) and April with $63 million (14). Including his run of shows in May, he is the second artist to string together three consecutive months at No. 1, following Beyoncé last summer.
During May, Bad Bunny focused on the Southeast. He started in Houston on May 1, before maneuvering through New Orleans, Nashville, Atlanta, Orlando and other surrounding markets.
As is the case for many Spanish-speaking artists, Miami proved to be the month’s highlight, with $18.8 million and 49,300 tickets over three shows at the Kaseya Center from May 24-26. That nets Bad Bunny another No. 1 on the Top Boxscores chart. Among the 31 North American cities on the entire tour, only Los Angeles yielded a bigger gross, with $20.2 million. Brooklyn, Chicago and San Francisco also broke the $10 million threshold.
Bad Bunny makes two more appearances on Top Boxscores, at Nos. 13 and 15 with double-headers at Orlando’s Kia Center and Dallas’ American Airlines Center, respectively.
Including Bad Bunny’s three shows at San Juan’s Coliseo de Puerto Rico (June 7-9), the Most Wanted Tour grossed $211.4 million and sold 753,000 tickets across 49 shows.
Those totals are smaller than those of 2022’s World’s Hottest Tour, which raked in $314.1 million and sold 1.9 million tickets in North and South American stadiums. It remains the highest grossing tour by a Latin artist in Boxscore history.
But on a more even comparison, they’re larger than the finals for his most recent arena tour, El Ultimo Tour del Mundo, which earned $116.8 million and sold 576,000 tickets earlier that year. The Most Wanted Tour averaged $4.3 million per night, which marks a 29% increase from his same-sized 2022 shows.
The Most Wanted Tour is the fifth trek by a Latin artist to gross more than $200 million, following Bad Bunny’s own 2022 tour, RBD’s Soy Rebelde Tour, and ongoing stints by Karol G and Luis Miguel.
The upper region of the Top Tours chart is dominated by Latin and country acts. Right behind Bad Bunny, Aventura is No. 2 with $43.1 million and 261,000 tickets sold from a busy month of 20 shows. Luis Miguel is No. 9 with $25.7 million over 16 shows, as he becomes the first artist in the history of the monthly Boxscore charts to string together 10 consecutive months in the top 10 of Top Tours.
Among country acts, Luke Combs, Zach Bryan and George Strait line up at Nos. 3-5 with monthly earnings of $43.1 million, $40.5 million and $38.1 million, respectively. Kenny Chesney rounds out the upper tier at No. 10 with a combination of stadium and amphitheater shows on the Sun Goes Down Tour.
The rest of the top 10 is split between pop and rock, with nostalgia driving sales for both. Veteran British boy band Take That is No. 6, followed by Dead & Company at No. 7, earning $36.4 million from eight shows at Las Vegas’ Sphere. Justin Timberlake is No. 8. All three score multiple appearances on Top Boxscores.
After being unveiled as part of Billboard’s midyear touring report, May marks the monthly debut of two new venue charts. Historically, Boxscore’s capacity-specific venue charts have gone as far down to rooms that hold 5,000 people or less. In an effort to spotlight more clubs and small theaters, there are now separate charts for venues with capacities of 2,501-5,000, and 2,500 or less.
Morsani Hall, part of the David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, is No. 1 on the 2,501-5,000 chart, bringing in $3.1 million from 34,600 tickets over 16 shows. As such with the runner-up, Atlanta’s Fox Theatre, Morsani Hall scores its victory in large part thanks to touring stage productions. Still, the former featured Kevin Hart and the latter hosted Casting Crowns and Hasan Minhaj.
The rest of the top 10 is filled out by venues in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., with Las Vegas’ The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan at No. 3, Niagara Falls’ Fallsview Casino Resort at No. 6, and London’s O2 Academy Brixton at No. 9.
On the 2,500-and-under ranking, the DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids, Mich., reigns with $5.2 million and 61,100 tickets. Las Vegas shines again, with Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas at No. 2. Brooklyn Steel represents for New York at No. 6, and San Francisco’s Warfield Theater lifts the Bay Area at No. 8.