HEADLINES:
R/€ 
Oil Matthews leads the pack
December 24, 2009 Edition 1
LOS ANGELES: How much do rock fans love the Dave Matthews Band? Pollstar has counted the ways, and it’s more than half a billion dollars’ worth, enough to land the relentlessly touring group at the top of the concert
industry tracking publication’s ranking of the decade’s highestgrossing North American concert tours.
“Dave Matthews has never had the No 1 tour of the year,” Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovanni said. “It’s always been Madonna, or Prince, or (Bruce) Springsteen, or (Paul) McCartney, or U2, or the Rolling Stones. Consistency definitely mattered.” The Dave Matthews Band not only ended up with the highest cumulative concert gross from 2000 to 2009 – at $529.1 million
(about R3.71bn), but the group also sold significantly more tickets, 11.7m, during that period than any other act.
Consistency also factored into the runner-up on Pollstar’s tally, a performer who spent half the decade anchored in one city: Celine Dion grossed $522.2m, and a large portion of that came from her five-year run at the Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace, where average ticket prices far exceed those of most conventional pop concert tours.
Dion’s total box-office gross came in right behind Matthews, even though she played to slightly more than one-third the number of people – 4 million. Behind the Dave Matthews Band and Dion in the top five of Pollstar’s listing are, in order: Kenny Chesney ($455.6m at the box office from 8.6m tickets sold), Springsteen ($444.3m, 5.7m tickets) and the Rolling Stones ($426.9m, 3.2m tickets).
Rounding out the top 10: U2 ($391m, 4.4m tickets), Madonna ($325.3m, 2.1m tickets), the Eagles ($313.4m, 2.8m tickets), Elton John ($286.4m, 2.5m tickets) and Jimmy Buffett ($285.8m, 4.5m tickets).
Dion and Chesney might take special satisfaction in their high rankings, being the only acts in the top 10 to have launched their careers within the past 20 years. But even though classic rock acts from the 1960s and 1970s
dominate the list, Bongiovanni noted a solid showing by acts that launched their careers comparatively recently.
Metallica finished at No 15 (with a $225.5m gross), with country trio Rascal Flatts right behind at No 16 ($222.4m), 'N Sync (No 18, $196.4m), Britney Spears (No 19, $195.7m) and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (No 20, $194.9 m). “’N Sync exploded,” Bongiovanni said, “and then crashed and died, but still ended up at No
18. And look at Phish: They spent most of the decade broken up but still managed to generate enough revenue to make the list.” – Los Angeles Times
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