(Billboard) — With $125 million in total box office, Madonna’s Re-invention tour is the top grossing tour of 2004, selling out 55 of 56 performances, according to Billboard Boxscore. Madonna’’s average nightly take was $2.23 million. Prince’s Musicology tour drew nearly 1.5 million people, more than any other artist, and grossed $90.2 million, second only to Madonna. Shania Twain was third, reporting grosses totalling $62.5 million and playing to nearly 950,000 fans. The rest of the top 10 are as follows: Simon & Garfunkel ($59 million), Metallica ($53.8 million), Bette Midler ($53.3 million), Sting ($52.4 million), Kenny Chesney ($49.3 million), David Bowie ($46 million) and Toby Keith ($44.3 million).
This year Celine Dion has taken in more than $77 million from her residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. If Dion’s numbers reflected a “tour” per se, she would rank third among all acts. For the fifth consecutive year, Madison Square Garden in New York City tops the list of arenas, reporting music event grosses totalling just under $73 million. For the second consecutive year, Tweeter Center in Mansfield, Mass., is the top amphitheater, reporting more than $23 million from 32 concerts.
Overall, the North American concert business recovered from a dismal summer to end up virtually flat at a .2% increase for the year, according to the $2,217,564,081 reported to Billboard Boxscores in 2004. Worldwide numbers, driven by a relatively robust European concert market, saw an increase of .4%. With more than $1.3 billion in grosses from involvement in 7,009 shows reported worldwide, CCE remains far and away the top promoter in the world. – (CelebrityAccess Staff Writer)
