U2 to Break Record For Highest-Grossing Tour of All Time
360 world tour is projected to gross $700 million
By Matthew Perpetua
April 8, 2011 4:55 PM ET
JUAN MABROMATA/AFP/Getty
U2 are about to claim the record for the highest-grossing tour in history. After the band’s second show at Morumbi Stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the gross for the Irish band’s U2 360 world tour will pass the $558 million mark, eclipsing the Rolling Stones’ take for their A Bigger Bang tour of 2005-2007. By the time the band wraps up its next North American leg on July 30th in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, the band is projected to make around $700 million in total.
U2 will also be setting a record for the most-attended concert tour of all time with U2 360, thanks in part to the band’s unique staging, which allows stadiums to increase capacity for seating by 15 to 20 percent.
Though the success of the 360 tour is a testament to U2′s enduring global popularity, it is at least somewhat surprising in that the band has been touring in support of No Line on the Horizon, an album that underperformed at retail and spawned no major hits.
