Just like your Nonna told you - everything old is new again. Just ask Roger Waters. The legendary 68-year-old onetime Pink Floyd member’s most recent restaging of the band’s 1979 theatrical opus The Wall – currently touring the globe to ecstatic crowds – clobbered Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift, Van Halen, Lady Gaga and Pearl Jam for top ticket sales so far this year.
According to a report compiled by Boxscore/Billboard, Waters’ elaborate reproduction of the 33-year-old album grabbed a staggering $131.4 million from November 1 last year to May 31 this year, selling 1.2 million tickets. That's a lot of spaghetti.
The blockbuster tour ends on July 21 in Quebec City, and will have made more than $350 million in total since it hit the road in 2010, having been seen by three million people. Amazing what an unlikely but evidently universal storyline focused on disenfranchisement and madness can achieve.
Those figures pretty much left the competition in the dust although ironically, the second highest-earning tour over the same time period also shared a whiff of nostalgia: Michael Jackson: The Immortal Tour by Cirque du Soleil, has racked up $68.4 million in tickets. But its inclusion on this list is dubious given that it’s more theatre than music. Still an impressive draw.
Bruce Springsteen ranked third with his Wrecking Ball tour pulling in $52.4 million in box office sales, followed by Van Halen, Pearl Jam and others. Check out the complete list below. The insane tallies kind of make you wish you'd stuck with that teenage dream of being a rock star, huh?
The Top 10 highest earning tours from November 1, 2011 to May 31, 2012 are:
1. Roger Waters' The Wall ($131.4 million) 2. Michael Jackson: The Immortal Tour by Cirque du Soleil ($68.4 million) 3. Bruce Springsteen ($52.4 million) 4. Jay-Z/Kanye West’s The Throne ($46 million) 5. Lady Gaga ($44 million) 6. Van Halen ($38.6 million) 7. Trans-Siberian Orchestra ($33.4 million) 8. Taylor Swift ($26.3 million) 9. Pearl Jam ($25.4 million) 10. Andre Rieu ($25.3 million)
once again a wall comes down with sonic penetration oftruth...
Posted by: joseph | 07/20/2012 at 09:19 PM