Guns N’ Roses close third highest-grossing tour ever

Guns N’ Roses’ mammoth Not in this Lifetime world tour has finally drawn to a close, after three years that saw the rock legends play 158 concerts across six continents.

According to Billboard figures, the Live Nation-promoted tour grossed US$584.2 million from 5,371,891 ticket sales, making it the third highest-grossing tour in history behind Ed Sheeran’s ÷ tour ($775.6m) and U2’s 360° tour ($735.4m).

Beginning in 2016, the Not in this Lifetime tour marked the reunion of Guns N’ Roses members Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan after 13 years. It was the most successful rock tour of 2016 and the second highest-grossing tour of 2017, beaten by U2’s Joshua Tree 2017 phenomenon.

The tour has seen the rockers, who are represented by ITB’s Rod MacSween and UTA’s Ken Fermaglich, play 31 shows in Europe, 16 in Asia, 15 in South America, 8 in Australia and a sole date in South Africa.

Although home-continent shows amassed the most in terms of region – $285.5m – they fell short proportionally

Over half of the tour (55%) took place in North America, with 87 dates in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Although home-continent shows amassed the most in terms of region – $285.5m – they fell short proportionally, with 55% of the tour accounting for 49% of overall gross and 43% of net ticket sales.

The highest-grossing individual show took place at the 66,000-capacity London Stadium on 16 June 2017. The concert grossed $17.7m – 3% of the tour total – selling 140,877 tickets.

More than 100,000 fans also attended single dates at Foro Sol in Mexico City, the River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires and the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford. The shows in London, East Rutherford and Buenos Aires all broke the $10m mark, along with dates at the Tallinn, Song Festival Grounds in Estonia and Allianz Parque in São Paulo, Brazil.

The mega tour ended at the beginning of November with two dates at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

As noted by consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), veteran acts have consistently performed well on the touring circuit in recent years, with tours by U2, Roger Waters, Eagles, Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and Phil Collins bringing in “large totals” in 2018 alone.

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750,000 turn out for GNR’s European shows

Guns N’ Roses’ Not in this Lifetime world tour has become one of the highest grossing of all time, according to promoter/producer Live Nation, which has revealed it sold more than 750,000 tickets for the recent European leg.

The tour’s latest European run – leg nine – which wrapped up with a record-breaking show at Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg in July, saw the US rock legends play 13 stadia, along with headline slots at festivals including Download, Graspop and Firenze Rocks.

Since kicking off in 2016, the Not in this Lifetime tour has played more than 140 shows for over 5m fans in stadia, arenas and festivals. It was the most successful rock trek of 2016, and the second-highest tour of 2017, only pipped to the top spot by U2’s Joshua Tree 2017 phenomenon.

Next up for GNR Asian/African leg, taking in the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia and the UAE, before returning to the US on 8 December for a show at the 50,000-capacity Aloha Stadium in Hawaii.

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GNR sell 2m tickets in 2016

Guns N’ Roses sold more than two million tickets in 2016, tour promoter Live Nation announced today, making Not in this Lifetime the most successful rock tour of the year.

The tour, the first by the ‘classic’ line-up of Axl Rose, Slash (pictured) and Duff McKagan since 1993’s Use Your Illusion tour, kicked off in April with an intimate set at the 500-cap. Troubador in West Hollywood, taking in a headline slot at Coachella later that month and arenas and stadia in North and South America, culminating with two shows at the Palace of Sports (26,000-cap.) in Mexico City on 29 and 30 November.

In addition to previously confirmed Asian and Australasian dates for 2017, the band today announced another 35 European and North American stadium shows for 2017, including Slane Castle in Dublin, the London Stadium, the Stade de France in Paris, Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv and a headline slot at TW Classic in Belgium next July.

A full list of GNR’s new 2017 dates is below:

Europe

North America

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