Madonna’s The Celebration Tour generated a total of $227.2 million at the box office after 1.1 million tickets were sold for the 80-date trek, according to Pollstar data
The Live Nation-produced outing, which ran from October 2023 to May 2024, visited Europe and North America before finishing with the biggest concert of the American pop icon’s career – a free show attended by an estimated 1.6m people on Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 4 May.
That concert, promoted by Bonus Track in partnership with Live Nation, was the Queen of Pop’s first gig in Brazil since 2012 and was the only South American date of the tour.
“It was unbelievable,” Live Nation’s head of global touring Arthur Fogel, Madonna’s promoter since 2001, tells Pollstar. “It was an incredible experience and pretty flawless pulling it off in the end. It wasn’t easy to get there, as you can imagine, there was a lot to deal with.
“Madonna [has been] such a strong musical force in the pop world for so long that it’s just awe-inspiring”
“The navy was even there protecting the beach. Seriously, there were Navy destroyers just a few hundred yards off the beach controlling the boat action and access. It was amazing.”
Madonna, who graces the cover of the fourth annual Pride takeover edition of IQ Magazine, has generated box office takings of $1.61 billion over her 12 tours, selling more than 12.6 million tickets over 650 shows. Six tours took more than $100m.
Pollstar reports that 2008/09’s Sticky & Sweet Tour earned $419m and was the highest-grossing tour by a female artist for more than 15 years, while 2012’s MDNA Tour grossed $301m. Other standouts include 2006’s Confessions Tour ($194m), 2015/16’s Rebel Heart Tour ($169.8m) and 2004’s Re-Invention Tour ($125.3m).
“She’s had to endure a lot as that target because she takes so many risks in her career, is upfront about it and doesn’t shy away from a lot of the things that people react strongly to one way or the other,” adds Fogel. “But on this tour and show you realise her catalogue of hits, apart from everything else, the actual hit after hit after hit, that Madonna is such a strong musical force in the pop world for so long that it’s just awe-inspiring.”
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