Boxoffice Insider: Genesis Rocks With Top European Grosses

Mark Sagliocco / Getty Images – GENESIS TOPS POLLSTAR’S 2022 MAGNA CHARTA.
Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins and Tony Banks of Genesis perform during the “The Last Domino?” tour at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y., on Dec. 10, 2021.

Among the features of the annual Magna Charta spotlight on live entertainment in Europe is the ranking of the highest-grossing tours that played venues on the continent during the 12-month period ending Jan. 31. Ranked No. 1 on the chart is the venerable rock band Genesis with an overall gross topping $18.1 million earned during the opening leg of “The Last Domino?” tour that kicked off Sept. 20 in Birmingham, England.

The European leg, booked in six cities in the UK through early October, was the first of three treks on the world tour that also included a five-week stint set in North American cities during the final two months of 2021. A second leg through Europe, set to begin on March 7, will include three-night engagements at Köln, Germany’s Lanxess Arena as well as The O2 in London. Venues in Berlin, Hanover, Paris and Amsterdam will each stage two performances.

The first five UK arenas last fall each hosted Genesis for multiple shows with Birmingham’s tour opener at Utilita Arena welcoming the band for three nights. The ticket count at that first engagement was 29,550 for a gross total of $4.89 million, the group’s top box-office take in Europe last year.

A Sept. 24-25 run at Manchester’s AO Arena, the second venue on the schedule, grossed more than $3.5 million. With a total of 21,014 sold, the venue averaged 10,507 per show, the highest during the opening leg. Two-night stands followed at First Direct Arena in Leeds, Newcastle’s Utilita Arena and the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool.

The band’s UK finale for 2021 was the only engagement to feature a single performance and the only one held in Scotland: an Oct. 7 show at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro that drew 9,860 fans. With a box-office haul topping $1.8 million, it was the highest-grossing single performance during the tour’s opening run.

Along with Genesis’ three-show gross in Birmingham, all the band’s concert engagements grossed high enough to land among the 15 top-grossing box-office totals reported to Pollstar for any artist during the Magna Charta eligibility time frame.

Following Genesis on the slate of top European tours is the “Beat Again” tour by English vocal group JLS, ranked second among the top 100. The boy band that parted ways in 2013 but reunited in 2020 with plans to tour late that year finally launched the postponed trek last October with dates booked through November in U.K. cities. Based on sales from 22 reported shows at 13 venues, the group moved 154,581 tickets for a gross of $11.1 million. The venue with the highest gross on the tour was The O2 in London, which logged $1.88 million in sales from 25,027 tickets sold at concerts on Nov. 4 and 5.

German Schlager singer Roland Kaiser rounds out the top three Magna Charta tours with more than $8.5 million in grosses reported from 33 performances, primarily at arenas in his home country, but his box-office totals also include shows in Vienna and Zürich. Overall, he sold a total of 157,805 tickets at 30 venues from August through November. Berlin’s Mercedes-Benz Arena produced his top box-office counts with a gross of $513,690 and sold tickets totaling 9,949 on Oct. 30.