The Washington Post
January 12, 1994 | Richard Harrington
Pollstar couldn’t stop the presses, so its list of 1993’s top concert grosses is just a tad inaccurate. In the Dec. 31 issue of the concert trade journal, Bette Midler sits in the top slot for her 30-show run at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in September and October, the one that sold 177,747 tickets for the decidedly grand sum of $11,119,320.
But Barbra Streisand supplanted that with a gross of $12 million to $14 million for her two recent shows at the 15,000-seat MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas. How could a weekend show gross more than a month of gigs? Well, it’s not that hard when a lot of the tickets sell for $1,000 a pop (before scalpers). Technically, the concert bridges year’s end: One was on New Year’s Eve, the other New Year’s Night. The second concert is thought to be the highest-grossing show in entertainment history (though Howard Stern‘s New Year’s Eve pay-per-view clearly had a higher number of grosses).
Additionally, Streisand set a record for merchandise sales, averaging $40 per concertgoer. That’s nearly triple the $10 to $15 per customer that the hottest rock and pop acts average and twice the sales figures for Super Bowl merchandise. Among the items offered: embroidered boxer shorts and silk jacquard blouses, engraved crystal paperweights and champagne flutes, and limited-edition jewelry – not exactly what you’d find at a Metallica concert.
