By the time Jay-Z and Beyonce step off the stage in San Francisco on Wednesday night, their On The Run tour will have grossed more than $100 million in ticket sales.
According to an in-depth report from Billboard, total attendance will run past 850,000 from the 19 North American shows—Wednesday is the final date—which means stadiums as a whole filled more than 90 percent capacity during the tour.
The tour's nightly take is over $5.2 million with an average attendance of 45,000— all of this despite several roadblocks.
Omar Al-Joulani—VP of North American touring for Live Nation—also shushed speculation that Live Nation might be losing money on the tour. His retort: "Everybody's winning."
The tour overcame poor sales out of the gate thanks to what Billboard called "a general market trend of tickets selling closer to show date," and Al-Joulani backed that up.
"These shows sold tremendously well at the end, so we were able to sell-up limited-view and clean up production holds or other holds," Al-Joulani said. "It was a very successful tour, and we're pleased to have that big gross number at the end."
Another impressive aspect of the tour was the turnaround time. Most stadium shows need at least a year of planning, but On The Run was conceived in mid-March.
The shows were equipped with three duplicate staging systems that traveled to cities in advance. The stage elements included a moving hi-definition screen, pyrotechnics, hydraulic lifts, and a B stage that extended into the audience.
The total numbers: Forty-two trucks, including 150 crew members.
"Every show has gone up on time, with no production issues," Al-Joulani said.
There are few artists who would be able to successfully execute a last-minute major stadium tour. But the Jay Z/Beyonce combination was simply too big to fail.
Heading into the summer, the duo was still riding high for a myriad of reasons besides their basic brand value: Their Grammy performance was a big hit, Beyonce's new record was still pulling numbers in the first half of the year, and the couple even made a kick-ass promotional video for the tour.
"We had a lot of things that went into making this tour an event, and that was part of our success," Al-Joulani said. "These events are driven by content and demand, and being dramatic and creative and putting out content people want to see. The two of them are as about creative as you can get, and it was pretty brilliant to watch them work. The show itself is spectacular."
Jay and Bey will make two international On The Run stops in Paris (Sept. 12-13), which will be filmed for an HBO special.
