Well, after nearly 35 years, it was bound to happen! Michael Jackson hold the title of the highest-grossing tour by a Black artist since the end of the Bad World Tour in 1989.
The Weeknd has been on his “After Hours Till Dawn tour since summer 2022 and will end in October 25 in Mexico. The Tour has already made more than $350 million in revenue.
Adjusted to today’s inflation, Michael Jackson had the record of $311 million.
However, and this is not to take away this amazing accomplishment by the Weeknd, the ticket prices system have changed since the 80s. Back then, fans had a clear idea of the price. For example, a ticket to see Michael on the Bad Tour at Wembley Stadium in July 1988 was £17.50 (about £60 in 2023). Today, ticket prices vary depending on the demand. More people want to see an artist, more it will cost the fans for a ticket. The average ticket for the Weeknd for London dates were £240.
Profitability is everything for today’s tour promoters and the only way to value this result is to look at the number of attendees of those concerts, and superpose this with the revenue figures.
As the Weeknd hasn’t finished his tour, he has so far had just over a million people attending his tour. While Michael Jackson Bad Tour had 4.5 million.
Just by seeing those numbers of fans, we can already conclude that the ticket marging for the weeknd is way higher than the Bad Tour ticket marging.
So yes, on paper and maybe in the history books, the weeknd has now the title, but by figures, calculation and exponentiality, technically, Michael Jackson still hold the title!
As The Weeknd is a huge Michael Jackson fan, we can let this one slide and he also acknoledge this and performed “Dirty Diana”:
my king. then, now and forever. 👑✨ rest easy pic.twitter.com/7y6tEyAyBB
— Abel Tesfaye (@theweeknd) July 12, 2023
Another glorious win for late stage capitalism & the shareholders I guess.