Sold Out: The Joshua Tree Tour 2019 Box Scores

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2019-11-25)

The first four shows of The Joshua Tree Tour 2019 have been listed as sellouts in information about U2’s box scores for the most recent tour provided by Pollstar.

In Auckland earlier this month, NZ, U2 played two nights, to a combined crowd of 69,823 people. The venue capacity is listed as 34,911 in the report, meaning both shows are listed as sold out. U2 grossed $7.3 million US Dollars with these two shows.

The first two shows in Australia earlier this month are also both listed as sold out shows. In Brisbane, U2 played to 45,609 people, and grossed $5.0 million US Dollars. In Melbourne, U2 played to 59,726 people, and grossed $6.9 million US Dollars.

A couple of weeks before the tour the ticket situation for the second Auckland show looked poor. Large blocks of tickets remained unsold. However, as the concert neared an advertisement campaign was launched on billboards, electronic signs, on taxis, and elsewhere, and it seems to have helped. Good reviews of the first show helped as well, and the morning of the second show only scattered seats were available in sections that had been mostly unsold two weeks before. When Ticketmaster took down the event, no longer selling it on the internet, only tickets for their club rooms were available on that side of the venue, and even these could be purchased at the venue right up until the show so may have sold. The capacity at each venue is described by Pollstar as “Represents the tickets available for sale for 1 show, or average tickets available on multi-show engagements. Submissions should subtract complimentary tickets and production kills from the capacity of the venue to give an accurate representation of the tickets available for sale.” Tickets removed from the production, such as seats blocked by the production behind the stage, etc, do not count towards capacity. Likewise the tickets sold do not include complimentary tickets. Tickets are submitted directly by venues.

In Brisbane, U2 played to 45,609 people this month. When they played the same stadium on the U2360 tour, they played to less people, with a listed capacity of 42,873 people for that show. Likewise in Melbourne, more people were fit into the stadium this time around, with 52,656 being the reported capacity in 2010, and 59,726 being the capacity for the current tour. They did play to less people overall in Melbourne this time around though, as only one show was scheduled for Melbourne this time out. The capacity in Auckland was listed as higher for the U2360 tour than the current tour.

Pollstar who reports these numbers above has been collecting data for the global concert industry for over 38 years, and report on concert attendance and other metrics on a regular basis, although with a bit of a delay. Data for more recent shows like U2’s appearances in Sydney have not yet been published by Pollstar. Pollstar has also just named U2 the artist of the decade. Over 10 years, from 2010 – 2019 U2 grossed $1.038,104,132, beating out other musical acts. The Rolling Stones came in second for the decade with $929,196,083, and Ed Sheeran comes in third with $922,361,663. Taylor Swift and Beyonce round out the top five. The U2 number has not been finalized as there are still concerts to be added from the current tour. But when the total was tallied, U2 had sold 9,300,500 ticket in total in 255 shows. (Sheeran, although third on the list for total gross, comes in first for attendance for the decade having played to 11,329,573 people in that time.)

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