Bon Jovi’s world tour named highest-grossing of 2013

According to Billboard’s 2013 rankings, the New Jersey rockers hold the title as biggest international touring act of the year. Bon Jovi’s world tour was the highest-grossing tour of 2013. According to Billboard, the New Jersey rockers brought in $205,158,370: $60m (£37m) more than the next-biggest touring musician, P!nk, and a total that amounts to almost $2.3m (£1.4m) per concert.

Unbelievably, this is par for the course for Bon Jovi: three of their last four tours have seen similar results, and even 2011’s slightly smaller Bon Jovi Live tour brought in $140m (£86m) over just 59 gigs.

Billboard reports that the second-most successful tour of 2013 wasn’t even a musical act: Cirque du Soleil’s Immortal, a travelling circus show based on the music of Michael Jackson, sold 1.4m tickets across 205 performances, grossing $157,299,100 (£96,561,827). P!nk is next on the list, followed by Bruce Springsteen and Rihanna.

Despite playing only 23 concerts this year, the Rolling Stones come in at number six. They earned more than $126m (£77m) by playing to just 326,998 people: an average of almost £250 per person.

Compare this to Lady Gaga. Her Artpop tour is ranked at No 22 for 2013, behind everyone from Depeche Mode to One Direction and André Rieu. She played the same number of concerts as the Rolling Stones but earned 63% less. Little Monsters who went to see Lady Gaga paid an average of only £53 per ticket.

In 2013, nobody equalled the mammoth tour receipts from Madonna’s walkabout last year: the 2012 MDNA gigs grossed more than $228m (£141m) in only 72 nights. Even in 2013, Madonna’s 16 solo concerts were enough to generate $77m (£47m) in tickets, putting her at No 14 on Billboard’s list. Last month, the 55-year-old was named Forbes’ highest-earning musician of the year.

Source: The Guardian