Boxoffice Insider: Wide Range In Top NYC Concert Draws

Kaskade
Taylor Hill / Getty Images – Kaskade
rang in 2022 with a show at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. He’s pictured at Electric Zoo Festival at Randall’s Island in New York on Sept. 4, 2021.

Traditionally New Year’s Eve is one of the year’s largest celebrations with major concert entertainers appearing at performance venues to ring in the new year. Many of those traditions continued in 2021 even though the lingering effect of the pandemic was a factor that night as it was throughout the year.

Yet, live music fans did turn out for New Year’s Eve events in many North American cities, even though some had attendance restrictions or other procedures in place in response to COVID-19 and its variants. The evening did see some postponements or cancellations in various markets, but many participants still opted to celebrate the new year with a broad spectrum of entertainment options.
Many fans traveled to one of the world’s top entertainment destinations, Las Vegas, where marquees shined with some of the industry’s top draws. Among them were Maroon 5 at The Cosmopolitan, Lizzo at Virgin Hotels, Usher at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace and Katy Perry at Resorts World.

One of the top attractions on the Vegas Strip was Bruno Mars, who returned to Dolby Live at Park MGM with his residency, attracting capacity crowds at performances on the 30th and 31st. The 11-time Grammy Award winner moved a total of 10,301 tickets at the 5,200-seat performance venue with grosses from both shows topping $3.8 million. His year-end engagement followed a previous two-night stint at the venue just two weeks earlier on Dec. 17-18. Together, all four performances logged an attendance of 20,668 and produced a gross of $6.8 million.

Mars’ residency at the Park MGM Las Vegas began at the end of 2016 when he played a New Year’s run of two shows at the then-named Park Theater, drawing 10,157 fans. Since that first engagement, he has appeared on stage there 44 times with an overall attendance figure of 227,306. Revenue from those sold tickets now surpasses $60.8 million.

Also appearing in Las Vegas was Kristin Chenoweth with her third New Year’s Eve concert at The Smith Center’s Reynolds Hall, having previously performed there on the last night of the year in 2013 and 2017. The 2021 event had a ticket count of 1,173, bringing her total number of sold seats on New Year’s Eve to 4,566 with overall ticket revenue topping $456,000.

San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium continued its traditional New Year’s celebration with EDM stars, welcoming 8,868 Kaskade fans for the DJ’s sold-out performance on the 31st, marking his return for the year-end event after performing on New Year’s in 2016, 2017 and 2018. With sellout crowds in all four years, the overall ticket count for the five concerts (two shows in 2017) is 43,396. Kaskade’s recent 2021 event had the highest number of sold seats, but it surpassed the 2018 headcount by only five attendees. The total gross from all five shows in four years is $4.5 million.

In Chicago, Goose rang in 2022 with a two-night stand at the Riviera Theatre that racked up $251,322 at the box office. Promoted by Jam Productions, the sold-out concerts on the final two nights of the year had a sold-ticket count of 5,089, the band’s third highest of the year based on reported sales totals. A two-show run last July at Denver’s Sculpture Park had the most with 9,657 sold, while a two-night stint at New York City’s Terminal 5 in October drew 6,001 attendees.

Boston’s Big Night Live featured headliners on the final five nights of 2021, among their 13 shows reported during December. Above & Beyond kicked off the run on the 27th followed by Alesso the next evening and Griz on the 29th. Rezz performed on Dec. 30 and the New Year’s Eve show featured Gryffin with a crowd of 1,084.