Police Lead The Way In A Down Year For Concert Revenues

The Police's reunion tour was the most successful of this year, according to Billboard Boxscore.

The reformed British trio put their differences behind them in order to gross $212 million U.S. and sell more than 1.8 million tickets at stadiums, arenas and festivals around the globe through Nov. 13.

Another group who returned after a long layoff, Genesis, brought in $129 million from shows in North America and Europe to rank second. Justin Timberlake's "FutureSex LoveShow" tour raked in $126.8 million from more than 1.6 million fans worldwide.

No-one else grossed more than $100 million, and the rest of the top 10 earners looked like this: Kenny Chesney ($71.2 million); Rod Stewart ($70 million); Cirque Du Soleil's Delirium ($59.4 million); Roger Waters ($53.2 million); Tim McGraw and Faith Hill ($52.3 million); Christina Aguilera ($48.1 million); and Rascal Flatts ($41.6 million).

While those numbers may look impressive at first glance, they don't come close to last year when The Rolling Stones, U2, Madonna, Barbra Streisand and other superstars were on the road for big chunks of time. North American concert attendance fell by 19.2 per cent to 51 million tickets sold, and gross revenues dropped by 10.2 per cent to $2.6 billion.

"A 19.2-per cent decrease in attendance is very disturbing, since it reflects that the consumers are not really supporting breaking and mid-level talent," said Randy Phillips, president/CEO of American concert promotion company AEG Live, to Billboard.com. "If this trend continues, who will be the headliners of tomorrow?"