Welcome to the latest edition of Fascination, the Unofficial Cirque du Soleil Newsletter.
Although Blue Man Group is in residence at the Luxor, we’re talking a replacement for Criss Angel here. On Tuesday, July 18th, John Katsilometes from the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported a rumor that Cirque du Soleil was planning a new show concept for Luxor in 2019 to replace Mindfreak Live. He reached out to Cirque, who could neither confirm nor deny the rumor: “Interestingly, and unexpectedly,” he said, “Cirque responded to my inquiry about that show’s development by addressing Criss Angel’s status with the company.” From company spokeswoman Ann Paladie: “Cirque du Soleil and Criss Angel have enjoyed a tremendous partnership together over the last nine years. ‘Mindfreak Live’ is a very successful production and it is continuing with our enthusiastic support.” Angel’s contract with the hotel ends November 1, 2018. Hmmm…
I wonder if Criss will renew his contract now that he’s doing Mindfreak, rather than a specific Cirque show. I can’t imagine the Luxor would want to lose the show if it’s doing well enough. Especially now that Cirque owns Blue Man Group, who has a show at the Luxor again too. But I’d be interested in hearing all about a new show for the venue. I just can’t fathom what it could be. I think the failure of Zarakana – if you want to call it that – suggests that each show in Vegas HAS to be something unique, and Zarakna – for all its weirdness – just didn’t stand out. It didn’t help that Zarkana was being billed as Mystere 2.0, generally speaking… a show that was more classically acrobatic than, say, “O” and LOVE and ZUMANITY and KA. So any replacement in my opinion would have to be a unique concept not tied to any of those. Nothing like LOVE or ONE. And would have to be different than “O” and KA and Zumanity. I just don’t know what that concept could be. But interesting times are certainly ahead.
In other Criss Angel news, on Thursday, July 20, 2017, Criss Angel was honored by Hollywood’s Chamber of Commerce with the 2,615th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star was dedicated at 7018 Hollywood Boulevard next to the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and across the street from the star of Houdini.
The Top 50 Worldwide Tours grossed a combined $1.97 billion that is just short of last year’s record $1.98 billion. The total number of tickets sold by the Top 50, however, was up 3.5% to a record 23.4 million. That number was driven by a $3.11 or 3.5% drop in the average ticket price from $87.51 to $84.40. The Top 100 North American Tours grossed a combined $1.64 billion, which represents an 11% increase that broke last year’s industry record of $1.47 billion. The total number of tickets sold by the Top 100 was 22.8 million which also smashed last year’s record of 19.8 million. That represents a huge 15% increase for butts in seats. The average show gross among the Top 100 acts was up nearly 5% to a record $658,600. The average number of tickets sold per show was also up 706 to a record 9,128. The average ticket price in North America seems to be moderating, as they were on our Worldwide chart. The average price of admission to see one of the Top 100 acts was $72.16. That represents a decline of $2.46 or about 3.3% from last year. The industry record was the $76.20 average set in 2015.
Here’s how Cirque’s touring shows have done (that have reportable numbers) thus far in 2017…
World Gross Title AVG Tix AVG Tix Total AVG Cities
Rank in Mil Price Sold Tix Sold Gross / Shows
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22 $32.2 Kurios $88.73 15,273 351,282 $1,355,247 23/182
30 $27.6 Amaluna $80.39 16,329 342,900 $1,312,717 21/162
32 $25.5 Varekai $58.61 20,728 435,298 $1,214,847 21/136
33 $25.5 Luzia $91.31 16,432 279,349 $1,500,511 17/145
37 $24.2 Kooza $82.86 14,578 291,568 $1,207,957 20/156
49 $18.8 Toruk $62.00 27,553 303,083 $1,708,339 11/69
55 $17.4 OVO $60.89 14,281 285,628 $869,575 20/139
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171.2 Million Gross 2,289,108 Tickets Sold
NOTE (*): The first number in the RANK is the show’s listing in the Top 100 North American Tours list; the second is the show’s overall listing in Top 100 World-wide tours.
The volume of data collected by Pollstar continues to soar in 2017. So far, more than 65 million tickets have been reported sold for a gross approaching $4 billion. The 22,000 individual box office reports received in the first half of the year is an increase of more than 3% as our reporting network continues to expand. The bottom line is the industry took in more money and sold more tickets than ever before with a slightly lower ticket price… and that’s good for everyone.
Okay, so let’s go!
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