'American Idol' Tour Box Office Report - 32% Capacity, Gross Revenue Down 68%
Compared to previous seasons the American Idols LIVE! Tour 2013 was a box office disaster. In some venues, audience capacity was down to 32% and gross revenue down 68%.
It feels like an eternity ago now but when the Top 10 was revealed, I do remember saying that American Idol 12 was the worst season ever. People will just not buy tickets to watch them in concert -- and after the summer tour box office numbers are in, it's clear that the audience didn't.
AEG Live only reported a few box office numbers to Pollstar, and of the few that they did, the numbers are bleak (again compared to how American Idol has performed before).
In some venues AEG cut ticket availability by more than half from the previous year to bump up capacity percentages. For the venues that didn't cut capacity enough, they saw less than 50% tickets sold, with Kentucky down to 32%.
The average number of tickets sold from our sampling was 2500 tickets per venue down more than 50% from last season's average of 5500 tickets. Average gross revenue was even worse down at least 60%. Meaning: they discounted the ticket prices to get more people to watch (which sadly didn't work).
Newark cut capacity by 1561 seats and it only filled 37%. Gross revenue there was down 68% from the previous year.
Nashville cut capacity by 4758 seats (60%!) selling 2469 of 3176 available. Gross revenue there was down 66% from the previous year.
Uniondale cut capacity by 1073 seats and it only filled 41%. Gross revenue there was down 65% from the previous year.
Louisville which wasn't on the calendar last year sold only 32% of capacity.
The worst part about this is that these may be the best numbers of the summer and AEG just stopped reporting the rest to save themselves further embarrassment.
Could this be even worse than the Season 9 summer tour? It looks like it.
Lee DeWyze may finally get a reprieve soon and get "the monkey" off his back (and no, I didn't mean Nigel Lythgoe). Candice Glover could end up as the worst selling American Idol winner of all time come February 2014 (it was postponed again). She headlined this tour and only a few people showed up.
American Idol' LIVE Tour 2013 Box Office Report
'American Idol' LIVE! Tour 2013 Box Office Report
| City | Venue | Tickets Sold / Available | Gross Revenue | (2012) Sold / Available | (2012) Gross Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles, CA | Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE | 6,475 / 6,882 (94%) | $188,544 | 5,917 / 6,339 (93%) | $362,096 |
| Grand Prairie, TX | Verizon Theatre At Grand Prairie | 2,425 / 4,275 (57%) | $145,688 | - | - |
| Newark, NJ | Prudential Center | 2,653 / 7251 (37%) | $144,363 | 8,035 / 8,812 (91%) | $444,658 |
| Uniondale, NY | Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum | 2,893 / 7,138 (41%) | $149,338 | 7,777 / 8,211 (95%) | $421,551 |
| Boston, MA | Agganis Arena | 2,545 / 3,035 (84%) | $142,612 | - | - |
| Louisville, KY | KFC Yum! Center | 2,129 / 6,648 (32%) | $83,579 | - | - |
| Nashville, TN | Bridgestone Arena | 2,469 / 3,176 (78%) | $137,755 | 7,249 / 7,934 (91%) | $400,179 |