Rolling Stones Tour Grosses Over $10 Million per Show
The Rolling Stones returned to the top of the highest-earning touring chart, grossing $10.1 million per show on their 2021 No Filter U.S. trek.
The figures were reported by industry publication Pollstar, which noted that the British veterans had also achieved 100 percent ticket sales at every performance. They remain the only band to ever pass the $10 million threshold, having achieved the same feat during their pre-pandemic tour of 2019 – suggesting that, for the Stones at least, the negative financial effects of COVID-19 are over.
Pollstar’s Live 75 chart – the eligibility rules of which have been temporarily adjusted to allow for the pandemic – included seven shows from the U.S. stadium run, which sold an average of 43,073 tickets and grossed an average of $10,146,244. No other artist in the top 10 came close, with second-place singer Eric Church pulling an average of $1,607,516 from 15,889 ticket sales across seven shows.
The Stones have plotted three of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. Their 2005-07 A Bigger Bang road trip drew $558.3 million, placing them fourth overall behind Ed Sheeran ($776.2 million in 2017-19), U2 ($736.4 million in 2009-11) and Guns N’ Roses ($584.2 million in 2016-19). The band's current tour is in ninth place so far, grossing $415.6 million since 2017 across 60 shows. They also landed at No. 20 with the 2004-05 Voodoo Lounge tour, which raked in $320 million.
The Stones' most recent dates mark the first time they’ve toured without drummer Charlie Watts, who died in August. Watts had already been replaced by longtime collaborator Steve Jordan in what was originally a temporary move. “The last thing I wanted to do was a Rolling Stones tour without Charlie,” guitarist Keith Richards said recently. “Charlie said, ‘Look, go on with Steve.’ Everyone [knows] that I’ve worked with Steve for 30 years, and he’d also worked with Mick [Jagger] and me over the last couple of years in the studio. So it was kind of a seamless transition.”
Richards added: “I can almost feel Charlie smiling down on us every night. You’ve got to roll with the punches. This is rock ‘n’ roll. My important thing is ‘roll.’ The ‘rock’ is comparatively easy.”