U2 Tops Pollstar's Year-End Touring Chart With $316 Million Gross, Veteran Male Acts Dominate ...

U2's "Joshua Tree" 30th anniversary trek was the year's top-grossing tour, according to a Pollstar year-end chart released Wednesday. The Live Nation-promoted jaunt, which comprised 50 shows in 38 cities, took in a whopping $316 million and reported a total of 2.71 million tickets sold.

Coming in second was Guns N' Roses, with $292.5 million gross and 2.68 million tickets sold on an 81-date/74-city UTA/International Talent Booking tour that sold nearly as many tickets as U2's, but charged an average of $40 less per head, according to Pollstar. Coldplay was third with a $238 million gross, Bruno Mars fourth with $200.1 million, and Metallica fifth with $152.8 million.

Bruce Springsteen's Broadway residency came in 14th with $87.8 million based on 60 shows in New York's Walter Kerr Theater, based on its whopping $1,500-per-ticket average (the Rolling Stones, at No. 9 with $120 million on just 14 shows, were next with a $158.81 average ticket price). Springsteen's Broadway run is apparently tallied separately from his "River" tour, which finished in Australia and New Zealand in January and February of this year.

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Unlike most airplay and streaming charts and Grammy nominations, which dominated by hip-hop/R&B and pop acts, the top live-music year-end grosses were dominated by veteran white male rock and pop artists — Garth Brooks is the highest-ranking country act at No. 10 with an estimated $101.4 million (the only other was Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's co-headlining tour, No. 18 with $79.3 million). Celine Dion was the highest ranking female artist with $101.2 million, a combination of arena dates and her Las Vegas residency. Lady Gaga landed at No. 15 with $85.7 million and Ariana Grande No. 20 with $68.5 million.

Similarly, the chart is dominated by veteran acts, with just 7 of the top 20 — Coldplay, Mars, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, Gaga, The Weeknd and Grande — having released their debut albums in this millennium.

Overall, the Top 20 grossed $2.66 billion in 2017, a record high and increase of more than $264 million from 2016.

Pollstar's Top 20 chart is available for viewing here — the complete data package will be released to subscribers on Jan. 5.

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