Delirium Ranks Near The Top, Sort Of
By: Keith Johnson – Seattle, Washington (USA)
It was recently announced that Cirque du Soleil’s Delirium had made it into the Top 10 tours of 2006, as published in the Year-End Charts issue of Billboard Magazine.
Delirium came in at number six, beating out such popular acts as Aerosmith, Pearl Jam and the Dave Matthews Band. Their $78.5 million total gross was only bested by:
- #1 – The Rolling Stones, $425 million (110 performances, average $110 per ticket)
- #2 – Madonna, $194.7 million (60 performances, average $161 per ticket)
- #3 – Bon Jovi, $131 million (78 performances, average $72 per ticket)
- #4 – U2, $95.8 million (32 performances, average $80 per ticket)
- #5 – Tim McGraw & Faith Hill, $88.8 million (88 performances, average $81 per ticket)
- #6 – Delirium, $78.5 million (145 performances, average $88 per ticket)
While this looks impressive, an analysis of the figures presents a different view. We’ve attached the chart as an EXCEL spreadsheet for you to download and manipulate to your heart’s content HERE (Excel).
There are many factors that lead to a show’s total gross dollars – number of performances, theater capacity, attendance, and ticket price being primary. It’s in these numbers where Delirium lacks in relation to the other acts in the Top 25 rankings.
Deliriums total gross is listed at $78,529,777. They sold out the least number of performances, at two. Though they rank third in the number of possible seats that they could have sold (1,356,514), they sold 892,714, the lowest percentage (66%) of anyone on the chart. The average attendance per show was also lowest, at 6,157 per show. Their average gross per show was among the lowest, at $541,585; acts with lower grosses had less performances and in all but one case charged less than half of Delirium’s $88 average ticket price.
Then how did Delirium get onto the chart? Hard work! Their total gross is spread over 145 performances, far more than anyone else on the chart except the Rolling Stones (at 110). They played more than twice as many shows, on average, as any other act. The most shows at the lowest attendance can still equal high grosses, a model that seems to work for Cirque and presenter Live Nation. The opposite can also work of course; Barbara Streisand is number seven ($76 million) playing only 17 shows to 263,000 people, but at an average $289 ticket price!
It might be more fair to rate Delirium against other “special performance” type shows, such as Cirque Dreams, against which it would certainly excel on all financial fronts. It is the “odd duck” nature of Delirium – not quite a regular Cirque du Soleil show, not quite a musical concert in the traditional sense – that keeps it from fitting into almost any category.
Here’s a review of where Delirium ranks in the standings:
- Total Gross – 6th
- Total attendance – 9th
- Total capacity available – 3rd
- Number of shows – First
- Number of sellouts – Last
- Average attendance per show – Last
- Average capacity per show – Last
- Average gross per show – 21st
- Average ticket price – 6th
Check out the figures for yourself with our download HERE (Excel).
