Billboard Boxscore
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The Cure is more than 40 years deep into its career, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late for new peaks. The British band embarked on the Shows of a Lost World Tour and generated its biggest grosses and attendance ever. After playing its final show earlier this month, the tour grossed $37.5 million and sold 547,000 tickets over 35 shows in the U.S. and Canada, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore.
While those figures are personal highs among the band’s global touring career (dating back to The Cure’s first Boxscore reports in 1985; the band has been touring since the late ‘70s), apples-to-apples comparisons against its North American treks spotlight the tour’s success even better. The $37.5 million revenue total is more than double the band’s previous North American high of $18 million in 2016. And the 547,000 tickets surpass 1992’s 402,000.
Routing for the Shows of a Lost World Tour mixed arenas and amphitheaters in the U.S., yielding its biggest returns in the expected markets. Three shows at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl grossed $4.9 million and sold 50,800 tickets, while a three-peat at New York’s Madison Square Garden brought in $4.1 million from 44,300 tickets. Atlanta, Montreal and San Francisco follow.
Nightly attendance never dipped below 12,000, and averaged 15,629. That marks a 43% improvement over 2016’s 10,952, which itself was a 48% bump from The Cure’s 2008 tour. The band hadn’t averaged such a high attendance since 1989, when it paced 19,539 tickets in support of Disintegration. (That album was, at the time, the band’s highest charting album on the Billboard 200 [No. 12], containing its highest ranking hit on the Billboard Hot 100: “Love Song” [No. 2].)
This bar graph mirrors the peak-valley-peak trajectory that Billboard reported on Janet Jackson’s comeback spring tour. Both acts have sprawling discographies with close to a half century’s worth of beloved songs. That’s the kind of pitch that, after an extended break, can elevate an artist into their highly profitable legacy era, so-to-speak, soaking one’s deep roster of hits in a bath of nostalgia and extra disposable income.
Janet Jackson and The Cure may not make for the most obvious apples-to-apples comparison. But like Jackson, The Cure established a Boxscore peak around the turn of the ‘90s, before letting its legacy build to a new peak in the 2020s. Like Jackson, The Cure is touring without new material, many years away from its last album. (The band last released a new studio set in 2008.) Their 2023 shows marked the first North American tour for either act since the mid-2010s.
And while the effects of Jackson’s highly publicized mid-’00s controversy don’t quite apply here, the Shows of a Lost World Tour generated its own batch of headlines earlier this year. Frontman Robert Smith spoke out about various “scams” and fees, courtesy Ticketmaster and the larger secondary market, resisting dynamic pricing, platinum ticketing and scaled re-sale. The band went as far as to ensure that every show had a price option of $30 or less. Further, after fans made Smith aware of exorbitant fees, he negotiated with Ticketmaster to issue refunds.
As lines between primary and secondary ticket sellers blur and pricing strategies become more creative, concert revenues for arena acts have surged. And though it may seem like perfect timing to pair those ticketing practices with The Cure’s much-anticipated return to the stage, the band’s defiant public stand against gouging fans worked out in the end.
The Shows of a Lost World Tour averaged a $68.54 price, 37% less than the triple-digit average ticket among the top 50 tours on Billboard’s midyear 2023 recap. Only one artist in that top 50 – The 1975 – averaged less ($63.01), and that was with mostly European shows, where tickets haven’t exploded in the same way as the U.S., where The Cure played.
Still, the tour made enough money to have ranked among the top 20, had its shows been eligible (The midyear charts are based on shows between Nov. 1, 2022 – April 30, 2023. The Cure’s tour began on May 10.). The Cure’s bulked-up, career-high grosses are owed to consistently sold-out crowds, perhaps nudged along by the band’s steadfast dedication to affordable tickets.
Though the Shows of a Lost World Tour has wrapped, The Cure will play a slew of festivals plus a few standalone shows in Latin America between September and December.
Stretching back to 1985, The Cure has grossed a reported $146.1 million and sold 3 million tickets.
Well that was quick. Just two weeks ago, Billboard was lamenting the lack of women at the top of the midyear Boxscore report but looking forward to the slew of female acts slated to storm the rankings throughout the rest of the year. And now, Beyoncé becomes the first woman at No. 1 on Top Tours in almost four years.
According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the first nine shows of the Renaissance World Tour — between May 10-30 — earned $67.5 million and sold 461,000 tickets. That makes Beyoncé the highest grossing act of the month.
The last time a woman-identifying act crowned the list, P!nk ever so narrowly edged out The Rolling Stones in July 2019 with a similar run of European stadiums. P!nk had previously topped the list in March of that year, with the Spice Girls sneaking in between in June. The four-year break between them includes the blackout period of COVID-19, but still marks a breathless stretch of 28 monthly reports dominated by male acts.
Further, Beyoncé is the first Black artist, regardless of gender, to hit the monthly summit since the charts launched in February 2019. Extending beyond the launch of these rankings, the last to do so was Queen Bey herself, co-headlining with Jay-Z on 2018’s On the Run II Tour. They earned $53.1 million and sold 404,000 tickets in September of that year.
The Renaissance World Tour’s $60 million-plus haul makes it the 10th tour to break that barrier. It’s the sixth biggest monthly gross since the charts premiered, only behind Bad Bunny (twice), The Rolling Stones, Def Leppard and Motley Crue, and The Weeknd.
Beyoncé’s nine shows in May were spread across seven markets in Europe. All seven reports appear on Top Boxscores, led by two dates at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Those shows earned $16.9 million and sold 96,000 tickets, enough to rank No. 3.
But the engagement’s bronze medal is more a quirk of timing than a failure to lead the list. She played five shows there, but three of them fell in June, and those will qualify for next month’s recap. In total, the quintet of concerts earned $42.2 million and sold 240,000 tickets. That makes it the seventh highest grossing reported Boxscore of all time, and the highest among women artists, passing the Spice Girls’ 17-show haul at London’s own O2 Arena ($33.8 million; 257,000 tickets) in 2007-08.
Elsewhere, Beyoncé posted eight-digit earnings in Solna, Sweden, grossing $10.7 million on the tour’s first two shows (May 10-11) and at Paris’ Stade de France with $10.1 million. Those follow at Nos. 11-12 on Top Boxscores, ahead of one-night-only concerts in Edinburgh, Scotland (No. 14); Cardiff, Wales (No. 21); Brussels, Belgium (No. 22); and Sunderland, England (No. 24).
Beyoncé’s omnipresence on the May report extends to Top Promoters, pushing Live Nation above $400 million and four million tickets. And three venues from her routing appear on the 10-position Top Stadiums chart, including Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at No. 7, powered solely by its two Renaissance shows.
Only halfway through her voyage through Europe, Renaissance’s $67.5 million from May fast approaches the continental totals from On the Run II and Beyoncé’s solo The Formation World Tour, each of which grossed $87 million across the pond. With more figures reported for June, she’s already blown past both of those tours with more than $150 million in the bank.
Coldplay follows at No. 2 on Top Tours, earning $54.8 million. That gross features its own monthly split, with one show at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium on May 31, leaving three others to chart on next month’s recap. Elsewhere, the band played four-show runs at Barcelona’s Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys and in Coimbra, Portugal, at Estadio Cidade de Coimbra. Those line up at Nos. 1-2 on Top Boxscores, with Barcelona topping out at $27.3 million.
Coldplay edged out Beyoncé in terms of monthly attendance, but just barely. Chris Martin & Co. sold 482,000 tickets, 4% ahead of Bey’s 461,000.
Harry Styles and Elton John mix in the top five, at Nos. 3 and 5, respectively. Both Brits are scheduled to wrap their respective yearslong tours in July, clearing space for some of the summer’s biggest acts. Some of those make their Top Tours debuts, including Blink-182 at No. 4. The first batch of the pop-punk’s reunion tour grossed $37.1 million in North American arenas.
After popping in at No. 25 in December 2019, Shania Twain makes her post-pandemic return at No. 6, barely under $30 million with $29.7 million and 249,000 tickets. The Queen of Me Tour continues in North America through the end of July before shipping off to Europe in September.
Also hitting the top 10 for the first time are SUGA at No. 7 (previously listed as Agust D on the April report) and Janet Jackson at No. 10. Both acts blow past the $20 million mark with shows in arenas and amphitheaters.
Deeper on Top Tours, 24 acts grossed $10 million or more, eclipsing the 23 of last September. At the onset of the summer season, with stadiums and amphitheaters opening, expect grosses to continue to surge.
She make it look easy, ‘cause she got it. Earlier on Thursday (June 29), Billboard reported that the first nine shows of Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour made her the top-grossing touring act of May. But there’s more! She wrapped the European leg of the tour Wednesday night in Warsaw, posting career-high blockbuster numbers. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Beyoncé grossed $154.4 million and sold 1 million tickets across 21 shows.
Not only is that a huge number that resists qualification, it’s the biggest gross and attendance of any of Beyoncé’s previous European legs. On 2016’s The Formation World Tour and 2018’s On the Run II Tour (co-headlined with Jay-Z), she earned $87 million, marking a 77% bump on her recent stint.
The so-far $154 million-plus total from 21 shows over two months is more than any artist made in the six-month window that defined Billboard’s midyear report. Of course, Harry Styles, Elton John and other acts atop those charts continue to add to their hauls, but it bodes well that the Renaissance World Tour isn’t even half done, putting it in immediate contention for year-end honors.
The tour’s attendance of 1.05 million improves upon 871,000 in 2018 and 867,000 in 2016. It’s the first time that any leg of any solo Beyoncé tour broke the seven-digit milestone.
Of the 14 markets Beyoncé hit, 12 of them yielded local records. That includes the biggest gross in the history of London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Warsaw’s PGE Narodowy, plus the attendance record at Tottenham. Elsewhere, she set highs for single-night engagements and broke ground among women and Black artists throughout Europe.
The obvious standout of the European shows was a five-night run in London, earning $42.2 million from 240,000 tickets. It instantly blasts in to the all-time top 10 Boxscores, ranked seventh behind two engagements apiece from Harry Styles, Take That and Coldplay. That makes it the single biggest report by a woman, a Black artist, or by any act from the United States.
Further, Beyoncé broke the $10 million barrier with double-headers in Solna, Sweden; Amsterdam; and Warsaw. She scored one more eight-figure show with one night at Paris’ Stade de France. The $10.1 million is slightly off from the $10.9 million from On the Run II, but consider that the 2018 gross came from two shows, matching 92% of that gross with just one show in 2023.
These 21 shows push Beyoncé’s reported career gross to $921.7 million and attendance to 9.9 million. But she’s not done for the near future.
The Renaissance World Tour continues with 36 shows in the U.S. and Canada, kicking off on July 8-9 in Toronto. If Beyoncé continues at this pace, the North American leg would gross $264 million and sell 1.8 million tickets. That leg alone would pass the global total of The Formation World Tour to become the biggest of Beyoncé’s career, though it’d make for a worldwide total of about $415 million and 2.8 million tickets.
On that 2016 run, Beyoncé paced $5.3 million in North America, compared to $5.1 million in Europe, indicating that those estimates could be slightly low. Her Renaissance grosses leapt by 44% in Europe from her previous solo tour, but post-pandemic results across the industry have exacerbated an existing ticket-price gap between the continents. Despite typically smaller capacities, North American stadium grosses have ballooned in a more extreme way than in Europe, which could push Beyoncé’s totals even higher.
Final results will depend on final pricing via the dynamics of a post-pandemic ticketing ecosystem. But it is more than safe to say that Beyoncé will soar beyond $1 billion and 10 million tickets in career figures due to her biggest tour ever.
It’s a gloriously sunny afternoon in June, and Elton John, sharply dressed in a salmon-pink pinstripe suit bedazzled with his name, is hobnobbing with his longtime band, his crew and his tour promoters in the garden of his elegant, expansive estate in Windsor, just 15 shows away from the end of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour that began five years ago.
But this isn’t just another pre-show soiree: it’s a special gathering organized by AEG’s chairman/CEO Jay Marciano to celebrate some historic chart milestones that Elton and his band have recently set.
The first is that the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour has grossed more than $887 million and sold 5.7 million tickets, with over 300 shows in 20 countries, becoming the top-grossing tour of all time, according to Billboard Boxscore.
The second is that Elton John has become the highest-grossing solo artist and top ticket-selling solo artist ever, grossing nearly $2 billion and selling over 20 million tickets since Billboard Boxscore started tracking data 40 years ago.
“When I started out, I just wanted to play music…I didn’t set out to have the highest-grossing tour of all time,” John told the crowd as he accepted the two awards from Billboard’s editorial director, Hannah Karp, and Billboard’s evp of charts and data partnerships, Silvio Pietroluongo. “Ed Sheeran will be very upset,” the Rocketman added drily, tipping to the fact that his tour surpassed the previous Billboard Boxscore record set by his pal and mentee’s Divide Tour.
John’s generosity extends well beyond inviting everyone to a garden gathering at his home with husband and manager David Furnish. He lauds the many behind-the-scenes players who made the record-setting trek possible, from Marciano to tour director Keith Bradley to longtime agent Howard Rose. And he insists on a standing ovation for head chef Tony Liddell, declaring that the “food on this tour has been the best food ever” in his half century-plus of globetrotting. The audience, which includes tattooed guitar techs, chic designers and some neatly dressed business folk, seems to heartily agree, at least judging by the thunderous clapping.
And, of course, his band – Davey Johnstone, Nigel Olsson, Matt Bissonette, John Mahon, Kim Bullard and Ray Cooper – get their fair share of props, in addition to receiving their own sleek, individualized awards for being part of the top-grossing tour in Billboard Boxscore history. His longtime lyricist, Bernie Taupin, is also given an award for his contributions to John’s achievements.
“It’s quite a wonderful thing to see people rewarded and to see the band get the plaques as well. I couldn’t have done it without the band. They so deserve this,” John says. “I have the best crew and the best band in the world – and that means you, Bruce Springsteen,” he adds with a wink.
Silvio Pietroluongo, Elton John and Hannah Karp
Ben Gibson
The rock icon also had kind words for Billboard, of which he’s remained an avid reader for decades. “Billboard, you know you’re my bible,” he says to Karp and Pietroluongo, also hailing Billboard’s executive editor Melinda Newman – whom he’s been interviewed by numerous times over the years – as a “great person.”
When Sir Elton takes his seat, Marciano assumes the role of emcee with relish (earlier in the show, he quipped, “you never give the concert promoter the mic – now it’s too late”). Marciano surprises John with a lush commemorative tour book that everyone who worked on the trek will receive (“no eBay!” John jokes to his band and crew) before Marciano announces, “And there’s more.” Sir Elton cuts in: “Are you gonna tell them I’m gay now? Sh-t.”
After hailing Furnish as the man with the “master plan of the tour” who overdelivered on his commitments (“I wish there were more like you”), Marciano announces he’s holding a $1 million check for the Elton John AIDS Foundation from Phil Anschutz, Jay Marciano and AEG Presents.
Ben Gibson
Following that, prizes are doled out – because what is a garden party if there aren’t prizes? And these ones were worth their weight in gold, quite literally. In the vein of the famed yellow brick road, gold bricks — custom designed by Dominic Jones, whose jewelry has been worn by everyone from Amy Winehouse to Beyoncé — were handed out as trivia rewards (each one was made of sustainable gold and minted by the Royal Mint). Earlier in the afternoon, while noshing and mingling, crew members were invited to answer a variety of EJ-related questions on digital kiosks. “How many shows has Elton John played in London over the years?”; “How many notes does Elton play on the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour?”; “What does the DC stand for in DC Parmet?” [Parmet is John’s longtime tour manager]. The answers: 177, 82,500 and… well, perhaps it stands for “Deeply Confidential.” While someone got a prize for the most creative answer, Parmet teased that maybe, just maybe, the truth of that mystery will be unveiled on July 8, when the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour rolls into Sweden for its final show.
“Most remarkable of all to us at Billboard, even as [Elton John] moves such massive, record-setting audiences from the stage, is the support and mentorship and love that he’s given so many people in his life on the most personal of levels,” said Billboard’s Karp. “Billboard doesn’t have a chart to track such data, yet. But if we did, we’re pretty certain he’d be at the top of that one, too.”
Everything may be bigger in Texas, but Dickies Arena in Fort Worth is punching above its weight class.
The 14,000-capacity venue opened in 2019 amid a competitive Texas market. With the 20,000-capacity American Airlines Center less than 40 miles east and the San Antonio, Austin and Houston markets reachable within a few hours, the region is saturated with large venues to book big names. Still, Dickies Arena has managed to stand out as a major contender in its first full year of shows following the COVID-19 pandemic, ranking at No. 2 on Billboard Boxscore’s Top Venues (10,001-15,000 capacity) chart for the 2023 midyear report.
In the report, which is based on the touring period of Nov. 1, 2022-April 30, 2023, Dickies Arena grossed $40.1 million from 79 reported shows. Compared with the same period last year, as the touring business was still coming out of the pandemic, the venue nearly tripled the number of tickets sold (from 209,000 to 610,000) and grossed almost four times as much (up from $11.6 million). Even beyond its capacity limit, Dickies Arena out-grossed all but six venues in the 15,001-plus range, including American Airlines Center in Dallas.
Midyear Boxscore charts are based on figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. Eligible shows played between Nov. 1, 2022 and April 30, 2023.
“If you look at entertainment, there wasn’t really much on this side of the [Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex],” says Dickies Arena president/GM Matt Homan, who notes that the drive between arenas can reach up to an hour-and-a-half with traffic. “What we’ve proven is that the market is large enough for American Airlines Center and Dickies Arena.”
While American Airlines Center is the larger of the two Metroplex arenas, the venue also has two home tenants (NBA team Dallas Mavericks and the NHL’s Dallas Stars) that occupy several dates on the calendar. Dickies Arena, however, only has the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, which runs from January to the first week of February, when concerts tend to be space. This year’s event brought in over $9 million from its 25 performances.
The Dickies Arena’s arrival and success run parallel to the city’s growing population. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2022, Fort Worth had the largest numeric population gain of any large city in the United States, with 19,170 people joining its population of roughly 1 million — and the venue is focused on catering to the city’s varying interests. Country music is naturally a good fit for the arena, with two sellouts from George Strait ($9.9 million) in November marking its highest-grossing run of the midyear report, with two more scheduled for later this year. “It’s a great experience for fans to see [Strait] in such an intimate venue,” says Homan, “you’re not going to a baseball stadium with 60,000 or 40,000-plus seats, which we all know George could sell out in a heartbeat.”
Beyond country, the Dickies Arena’s Boxscore totals also included shows from the Eagles, Muse, New Edition and K-pop group Stray Kids, the lattermost moving more than $2.5 million in tickets sold. “Our K-pop merch sales have been great,” says Homan. “Our merch numbers are generally amongst the top three to five on the tour, based on numbers I’ve seen recently.” Rauw Alejandro’s sold-out show in April, which grossed over $1.5 million, was also the start of Homan’s focus on the Latin market. “Going into this year, the [Latin market] was my highest priority,” he says. The arena will welcome Peso Pluma, Banda MS, Christian Nodal and Grupo Frontera in 2023. “We’re starting to finally dip our toes into those markets. We want to make sure that we have something here for everyone and that we’re really representing the major city that we are.”
Take a look at Bad Bunny’s recent tour history, and you get a good sense of Latin’s rapid growth on the road.
When Billboard published the 2019 Midyear Boxscore Recap, Bad Bunny missed out on the then-10-position Top Tours ranking, scraping the bottom of the top 30 with $25.8 million, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. In doing so, he scored the biggest Latin tour of the tracking period, covering shows between Nov. 1, 2018, and April 30, 2019.
Three years later, following the COVID-19 pandemic, Bad Bunny took himself – and his genre – to the top. He crowned the all-genre list in 2022, earning $123 million in the same November-April six-month window – the first time a Latin act has ever topped the ranking.
Midyear Boxscore charts are based on figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. Eligible shows played between Nov. 1, 2022 and April 30, 2023.
Now, Bad Bunny is in the midyear top 10 again in 2023 at No. 6 with $67.9 million, and he’s not alone. At No. 5, Daddy Yankee earned $72.5 million, marking the first time that two Latin artists have landed in the midyear top 10.
The top 10 Latin tours grossed a combined $295.1 million between November and April. That represents growth of 18.83% from last year, after already improving 101% from 2019.
While Bad Bunny and Daddy Yankee lead that growth with the three biggest Latin tours in Boxscore history, it doesn’t stop with the genre’s top headliners. See below to watch how the biggest Latin tours of the midyear reporting period have grown uniformly since 2019.
Each of the top 10 Latin tours is up — in both gross and attendance — from last year and 2019. This across-the-board growth applies to heritage stars such as Marc Anthony ($22.4 million) and Wisin y Yandel ($15.3 million) as well as newer headliners including Rauw Alejandro ($33.3 million) and Feid ($11.9 million).
Beyond the genre’s 19% growth in top-10 revenue, those shows’ attendance has grown by 48% as well. While last (mid)year’s biggest Latin tour (Bad Bunny) outgrossed this year’s (Daddy Yankee) by more than $50 million, the latter sold more than 100,000 tickets more than the former. Total attendance among the top 10 is 3.1 million, up from 2.1 million last year.
Beyond Latin, attendance is growing in R&B/hip-hop, pop and rock as well – which are up 44%, 43% and 16%, respectively. Despite the smaller bump, Rock remains No. 1 in both gross and attendance, with $539.1 million and 4.1 million tickets among its top 10 tours on the midyear recap.
Pop follows with $419.7 million and 3.8 million tickets. Further illustrating Latin’s gains, in 2019 the genre’s gross sales trailed pop by $350 million. This year, that lead has shrunk to $125 million.
Arena dates are on deck for Rauw Alejandro, Anuel AA and others for the rest of the year, while Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin and Pitbull will team for a tri-headline tour this fall. Karol G will play in select U.S. stadiums later this year, leveling up to unprecedented heights for Colombian acts.
As the genre’s biggest acts get bigger, its focus will grow wider as some of the biggest names in regional Mexican music join reggaeton and Latin-pop stars on the Boxscore charts. Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma will separately enter the domestic arena circuit this year while their No. 1 duet continues to dominate Billboard’s global charts.
“Bienvenido y gracias,” British singer Chris Martin told the sold-out crowd of more than 40,000 at Costa Rica’s Estadio Nacional in March 2022 — and “welcome and thank you” may be just enough Spanish to cement Coldplay’s popularity in the region forever.
“Over the years, Chris has developed a good level of what you might call ‘frontman Spanish,’” says Phil Harvey, the band’s manager. “It’s not what I would say is fluent, but he knows enough that he can conduct a concert in Spanish, and obviously that’s helpful in large parts of Latin America.”
The concert in San José, Coldplay’s first performance in Costa Rica, kicked off the band’s Music of the Spheres tour, which eventually played 41 sold-out stadiums throughout Latin America, from Mexico to Peru to Colombia to Chile. The band hit the top two slots on the 2023 midyear Top Boxscores chart with two runs in South America: six dates in March at Estadio do Morumbi in São Paulo drawing almost 440,000 fans and grossing $40.1 million, and six dates last November at Estadio Unico Diudad de la Plata in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with more than 376,000 fans and a $29.8 million gross. The band also hit No. 13 with three dates in Rio de Janeiro later in March, totaling 211,000 fans and a $17.2 million gross. All in all, not counting the band’s performance at the sold-out, 100,000-capacity Rock in Rio festival in Brazil last September, its tour dates in Latin America earned more than $193.3 million, according to Boxscore.
English-speaking rock stars from the United States and Europe have sold out shows in Latin America over the decades, of course, including Aerosmith and Lady Gaga, but Coldplay has spent the last several years burrowing unprecedentedly into local territories and cultures. In addition to tiny gestures such as speaking Spanish, the band invited Colombian singer Manuel Turizo onstage in Bogotá and Argentine star Tini in Buenos Aires for duets. In Buenos Aires, Coldplay covered beloved Argentine rock en espanol band Soda Stereo’s 1990 hit “De Música Ligera”; in Colombia, it covered local hero J Balvin’s 2019 hit with Bad Bunny “La Canción.” (It probably didn’t hurt the band’s Latin American popularity that Camila Cabello, who is Cuban American, opened several dates.)
Midyear Boxscore charts are based on figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. Eligible shows played between Nov. 1, 2022 and April 30, 2023.
“The Latin American audience is so fanatically loyal — if you’re loyal to them, they’re not going to forget you, the way crowds do in the U.S. and Europe,” says Bruno Del Granado, CAA’s global head of Latin music, who does not work with Coldplay. “A lot of times, international bands go to Latin America and they phone it in. They don’t want to deal with the language barrier. By having Manuel Turizo onstage, then singing his song, it’s like, ‘Wait a second, this guy wants to learn our culture.’”
In addition to the onstage moments, Coldplay has spent the last few years routing tours with prominent dates in Latin American countries — its 2016 A Head Full of Dreams tour began and ended in La Plata, Argentina, with stops in Chile, Peru, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. “That was very deliberate,” says Jared Braverman, senior vp of global touring for Live Nation, Coldplay’s longtime promoter. “They’ve always made it a point to prioritize many countries that get passed over because they’re not easy to get to. That builds up an audience over time.”
Over the years, many Western pop and rock stars have sold out large venues throughout Latin America, from Aerosmith’s regional tours beginning in the late 1970s to Rock in Rio, the Brazilian festival that debuted in 1985 and attracts some 700,000 attendees every other year. American rockers such as Keith Richards in the ’80s and Metallica in the ’90s, according to Del Granado, emphasized Latin American dates. The difference over the last two decades, he adds, is “state-of-the-art arenas,” such as the 11-year-old Mexico City Arena, the 4-year-old Movistar Arena in Buenos Aires and the Movistar Arena in Bogotá, renovated in 2018. “So it’s not even a case of, ‘Oh, my God, what am I going to do? Play in an open field or a bullfighting ring or a stadium?’” Del Granado says. “There’s no real excuse for bands not to go down there.”
Coldplay’s Western contemporaries have flirted with the same idea of building up Latin American credibility by paying tribute on the ground to beloved local songs and artists: In 2017, Maroon 5 performed a Portuguese version of the Getz/Gilberto Brazilian jazz classic “The Girl From Ipanema” at Rock in Rio. “But Coldplay has embraced it head-on,” says Bruce Moran, president of Live Nation Latin America, adding that music stars are scheduled to play 70 stadiums in the region in 2023. “It’s not just that they’re smart and savvy, but they really have embraced their fans in all regions — and it has paid off, clearly.”
As previously reported, Harry Styles came out on top on Billboard Boxscore’s 2023 midyear Top Tours chart. But it wasn’t an easy win. Across the six-month tracking period, the No. 1 spot flipped six times, coming down to a margin of less than $500,000, or 0.3%. Take a look below at how the midyear 2023 Top Tours ranking took shape, from Nov. 1, 2022, through April 30, 2023.
For the first day of November, Elton John led via his Nov. 1 show at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, earning $7.8 million, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. But, temporarily, he gave way to Coldplay, in the middle of a 10-show run at Buenos Aires’ Estadio Unico Ciudad de La Plata.
It took two Argentinian shows for Coldplay to take over. But before that epic run could end, Sir Elton was back on top, continuing his mammoth stadium run in North America, including three sold-out shows at Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium on Nov. 17 and 19-20.
John held the top spot into December, until being displaced by 2022’s overall champ, Bad Bunny. The Puerto Rican superstar wrapped World’s Hottest Tour, reaching a high of $67.9 million since the beginning of the ’23 tracking period. But just like that, Daddy Yankee, another Puerto Rican icon promoted by Cardenas Marketing Network, took over for the end of the calendar year, with $72.5 million.
Elton was back in January, playing shows in Oceania that not only gave him a third stint at No. 1, but cemented the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour as the highest-grossing tour of all time.
But then came Harry. After many months, midyears and year-end rankings in the top five, Mr. Styles claimed the pole position, juiced up by shows in Australia and Asia in February and March. Ultimately, he earned $138.6 million between November and April.
And despite Elton’s last-minute run at the O2 Arena (and one show on April 27 at Munich’s Olympiahalle), Styles stayed strong. John inched towards the top but ultimately fell short by less than half of a percentage point.
While those men traded off on top, Ed Sheeran, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Dua Lipa, Kevin Hart, Luke Combs, SZA and many more came in as some of the top touring acts of the midyear tracking period. Check back later this year for a year-end update with some of the summer’s biggest stadium runs.
Billboard Boxscore’s Midyear reports are in, and once again, the box-office ticket sales data voluntarily submitted by promoters and venues shows continued growth in the top tier of tours.
This year’s numbers are a strong signal of strength in the post-pandemic concert business. Still, a more in-depth look shows that the business may also have to adjust the way it looks at the touring calendar.
For much of the history of the concert business, touring schedules were planned around the calendar year: Outdoor tours launched in spring hit their high mark in summer and wrapped up in autumn, coming off the road just as winter began. But the growth of the indoor arena business — and growing importance of international markets — has upended the traditional touring calendar, in turn affecting how information from reporting tools such as the midyear Boxscore reports is used.
“The idea of touring year-round was once revolutionary,” says Gregg Perloff with Another Planet Entertainment, which produces concerts in the San Francisco Bay Area. “In California, the moderate climate allowed for year-round touring, but few acts wanted to be the ones who experimented with performing during the winter months. But as the business became more global, that shift started happening without any people noticing, and today, the schedule for how major acts tour is totally different than it was in the past.”
In the Spring of Things
This year’s data shows that many tours now begin in late March or early April, and that the fall months of October and November, when tours once wound down, are now more of a midpoint.
The height of concert season now takes place well past the middle of the summer and continues into the beginning of the new year — and often wraps up in seasonally warm climates. Take for example the midyear Top Tours title holder, Harry Styles, who began the European leg of his Love on Tour trek in late June 2022, and will end his run in July 2023. Coldplay, which launched its Music of the Spheres world tour in late March 2022, will end the bulk of its touring in July of this year. (The band will then play four fall dates, including makeup performances in San Diego, Australia and Malaysia.)
By late May/early June, it often starts to become clear which headline concert tours stand out as big earners, which major-market venues won the big shows of the summer and who will be headlining the big festivals that run through Labor Day weekend. But that’s a challenge for calendar-based reporting metrics such as Billboard Boxscore, whose midyear tracking period covers shows from Nov. 1, 2022, to April 30, 2023. While November is typically a strong month for the concert business, touring grinds to a halt around mid December and often doesn’t resume in a major way until mid March.
Still, while the top 10 of the Top Tours chart is $94 million stronger than 2022’s midyear recap, it’s not because the 2023 season started earlier, but because the 2022 season ran longer.
New Year, Same Success Stories
The 2023 Top Tours chart essentially functions as an addendum to the 2022 year-end chart at the halfway point, with all of the top 10 midyear tours from 2023 also appearing on the 2022 year-end chart, including seven within the year-end top 10. The crossover is simple to explain: The tours continued after Billboard’s Nov. 1 cutoff date.
Bad Bunny’s record-breaking $373 million haul from 2022 actually extends past the $400 million mark after factoring in the last two months of the year. Elton John adds $60 million to his $338 million year-end total when his shows at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles are accounted for, according to the midyear report.
Nearly all of the concerts featured on the midyear charts took place in venues in the western United States, Mexico, South America or Australia.
Only one entry on the top 10 Boxscores chart was located in a cold-climate city: John’s run of shows in London, which took place during the fairly warm month of April.
That’s not to say the East Coast and Western Europe is dead in the winter. Eleven of the top 20 performing venues in the categories of 10,001-15,000 capacity and 15,001 or more capacity are located in cold-climate cites such as London; Hamburg, Germany; New York; and Washington, D.C. The number drops to five out of 10 for theaters and four out of 10 for clubs.
Some of the year’s biggest tours — including those by Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Madonna — will likely make a sizable dent in 2023’s year-end charts with blockbuster summer grosses as stadiums in America open up for the next several months. (Beyoncé’s and Madonna’s tours began after the tracking period for the midyear report ended; Swift is yet to report numbers during that span.) Once reported, those figures will provide a strong indication of how 2023 looks — and early sales reports have concert business executives feeling optimistic.
Mexico Drives International Growth
Even with half of 2023 remaining, data from the midyear Boxscore report may indicate what lies in store for the rest of the year. One example is Phish reporting that it earned $22 million from its February engagement at the Moon Palace Golf & Spa Resort in Cancun, Mexico. The impressive eight-figure return proves that the perennial jam-rock band can still generate huge sales. It also shows that demand for live entertainment is still strong there, both for concerts targeting U.S. tourists and those aimed at residents of Mexico.
Two other concerts, both held in Mexico City — Daddy Yankee at the Foro Sol and Corona Capital at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez — each generated over $20 million apiece, making Mexico the highest grossing country on Billboard’s Top 10 Boxscores chart. That data shows that despite a continued rise in cartel violence since 2019, according to the U.S. Department of State, the Mexican concert market remains strong nearly a year after Live Nation purchased Mexican promoter OCESA. That information can be extremely helpful to concert bookers and promoters as they plot touring plans — potentially far more important than what part of the touring cycle Billboard Boxscore covers. Still, the inexorable shift toward year-round touring is making itself felt in a way that’s hard to ignore.
Harry Styles has been a constant presence on Billboard’s Top Tours chart, especially since the post-pandemic return of live music. He was No. 3 on 2021’s abridged year-end ranking, No. 21 on 2022’s midyear list and finished at No. 4 on that year’s overall tally. In between and since then, he has appeared on 13 monthly charts, including 10 top five appearances and three at No. 2. Now, finally, he takes his place atop the heap, dominating the 2023 midyear chart.
According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Styles’ Love on Tour trek grossed $138.6 million and sold 1.2 million tickets across 38 shows between Nov. 1, 2022, and April 30, 2023. That puts him at No. 1 on both Top Tours (ranked by gross revenue) and Top Ticket Sales (ranked by paid attendance).
Though this is Styles’ first solo appearance at No. 1 on Top Tours, he has reached the summit before as a member of One Direction. The five-member global sensation topped the 2014 year-end list and the 2015 midyear chart.
As Styles’ consistent chart presence indicates, his midyear triumph is the result of a constant grind, with the pop star road warrior making his way to the top at a pivotal moment in the two-year tour. The Love on Tour run was long delayed (pandemic-affected tours continue to appear on the Boxscore charts) but built upon the successful tours behind both 2019’s Fine Line and 2022’s Harry’s House.
Styles’ win is also an example of Boxscore’s global reach, as the artist’s chart totals include shows in California, Central and South America, Australia and Asia.
Styles began the tracking period with the back half of 12 shows at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif. (The first half were in October, which counted toward the 2022 year-end rankings.) He returned for three additional dates at the venue in January that were rescheduled from November, completing a $47.8 million haul over 15 concerts at the Los Angeles-area arena. Of that total, $28.9 million goes toward the 2023 charts, placing Styles at No. 3 on Top Boxscores.
From mid-November to mid-December, Styles played 14 shows in Mexico and South America, adding $40.4 million and 546,000 tickets. Then, following his final return to California (the three last Kia Forum shows, as well as two at the Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Calif.), he swept through Australian stadiums, earning $47.6 million from 373,000 tickets sold.
Those legs include three appearances on Top Boxscores, at Nos. 15 ($16.4 million; Accor Stadium, Sydney; March 3-4), 20 ($15 million; Marvel Stadium, Melbourne; Feb. 24-25) and 27 ($11.1 million; Allianz Parque, São Paulo; Dec. 6, 13-14).
Finally, Styles played six shows in Asia, adding $16.1 million and 122,000 tickets to his totals.
On Top Ticket Sales, Coldplay joins Styles as the only other act to sell over a million tickets during the tracking period. Coldplay’s 1.11 million tickets fall 9% short of Styles’ 1.22 million.
But on Top Tours, the margins are even thinner. Styles’ $138.6 million barely defends his title against Elton John’s late-surging total of $138.2 million, maintaining a lead of just 0.3% over his fellow Brit. Like Styles, John has been a consistent player on Billboard’s monthly, midyear and year-end Boxscore charts since the launch of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour. Notably, he was No. 1 on the midyear rankings for 2019 and 2020 and has topped seven monthly listings, which is more than any other act.
The presence of pop/rock British acts from last year’s Boxscore charts doesn’t end with Styles and John. Coldplay and Ed Sheeran, who come in at Nos. 3 and 4, respectively, on the midyear list, were Nos. 5 and 3, respectively, on last year’s recap. The only other act in last year’s top five was Bad Bunny, who winds up at No. 6 on the midyear chart, bumped by fellow Cárdenas Marketing Network artist Daddy Yankee.
Carryover from one year-end chart to the next is common, as major tours often continue beyond Billboard’s cutoff date of Oct. 31/Nov. 1. Further, tours are also blurring the lines of traditional album cycles, carrying on beyond a typical one-year span. Styles’ Love on Tour run has spanned the release of two albums, while Sheeran’s Mathematics Tour began as support for 2021’s = (Equals) and continues following the release of – (Subtract) in May.
Those blurred lines disappear, however, for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, which is celebrating her entire discography rather than focusing on last year’s chart-topping Midnights. Launching in mid-March and continuing through the summer, the trek will likely crash the year-end rankings with other summer tentpole tours. But Styles won’t fade away. While Love on Tour became one of Boxscore’s highest grossing treks of all time in May, 30 shows still remain — and he’ll play stadiums in Europe before wrapping July 22 in Italy, perhaps on his way to a $500 million finish.