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The Weeknd’s retooled tour could make up to $300m

First, Live Nation will have to issue more than $100m in refunds, which is reportedly 2.5% of the company's balance sheet

By IQ on 22 Oct 2021

The Weeknd

The Weeknd


image © Kim Erlandsen/NRK P3

The revamp of The Weeknd’s 2022 tour could generate up to US$300 million in ticket revenue, according to Billboard, making it one of the year’s top-grossing tours.

Earlier this week, it was announced that the After Hours 2022 tour – which was previously rescheduled three separate times due to the pandemic – would be again retooled with larger shows and added stadiums across the world.

The newly renamed and revamped After Hours Til Dawn stadium tour will feature new dates in Asia, Australia, Africa, South America and the Middle East but further details are yet to be announced.

“Due to the constraints of arenas and the demand for more shows I want to do something bigger and special for you which requires more stadiums,” wrote The Weeknd, aka Abel Tesfaye, on Instagram on Tuesday (19 October).

Some one million fans who purchased tickets to the original tour dates are to be refunded automatically, all of whom will be given priority to buy tickets for the stadium shows when they go on sale.

The Weeknd may be able to achieve [up to $300m in sales] this while performing 30% fewer shows

This means that promoter Live Nation will be on the hook to refund more than $100m in sales – which is 2.5% of the company’s total annual balance sheet – according to Billboard.

However, if the overhaul works out, The Weeknd could double or triple ticket revenue up to $300m in sales, by Billboard’s estimation, making it one of the year’s top-grossing tours.

On top of that, The Weeknd may be able to achieve this while performing 30% fewer shows – since large stadiums often have two to four times the capacity of arenas.

The Weeknd’s global After Hours til Dawn tour was originally scheduled in 2020 (when it was just the After Hours tour) to hit 105 arena dates beginning June 2020, but was postponed due to the pandemic – first to 2021 then January 2022 and now to summer 2022.

The rejuvenated tour comes after The Weeknd scored the longest-charting Billboard Hot 100 song of all time with ‘Blinding Light’ and the second longest-running No.1 album on the Billboard 200 for 2020 with After Hours.

The Grammy award-winning artist also headlined the 2021 Super Bowl Halftime Show, which is traditionally the most-watched event of the year on US television.


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