On November 4th, U2 completed the first part of their “U2:UV Warning Baby Live” tour at the Sphere Residency in Las Vegas. Your earnings are impressive.
According to Billboard Boxcore, the band achieved the highest revenue from ticket sales in the shortest time ever. Specifically, that means: $109.8 million in revenue for 281,000 tickets sold for 17 gigs so far. How could so much money be made in a short period of time? The high revenue is clearly due to the large Sphere audience capacity and the enormous ticket demand.
The U2 residency began on September 29, 2023 and spanned twelve shows in October and three more concerts in early November. Average gross receipts are $6.5 million with 16,500 tickets sold per show. A card typically cost around $390.97. This put the ticket price above the average for recent performances by Lady Gaga (US$290.15) and Bruno Mars (US$285.30).
U2 is still “only” third in the overall ranking
Even though U2 are the winners in terms of earnings in a short period of time, two artists have earned even more money from their Las Vegas shows – just over a longer period of time. Celine Dion tops the list with her “A New Day…” residency. This included 714 performances from 2003 to 2007 and brought $385.1 million into the box office. And Elton John’s The Million Dollar Piano follows suit with 189 gigs between 2011 and 2018, earning $131.2 million.
U2 will play eight more concerts in Las Vegas in December 2023. Eleven more concerts are on the program between January 26th and February 18th, 2024. The 19 planned shows could bring in an additional $120 million, according to Billboard Boxcore, bringing revenue to about $330 million in less than five months. Only Dion’s “A New Day…” would be ahead of U2.