With the final dates of the No Filter Tour, The Rolling Stones top the August Boxscore recap with the highest one-month gross for any act in more than eight years.
The Rolling Stones have completed their summer-long ascent to the top of Billboard’s monthly Boxscore recap as their No Filter Tour becomes the highest-grossing trek of August.
After two runs of concerts in Europe in 2017-18, the rock icons brought the show to North America this summer, with the leg’s two opening dates in Chicago netting them the No. 8 position on the June Boxscore recap. They followed that with six shows in July, bumping to No. 2 on that month’s tally, missing the pole position by a margin of less than 1%. Now, with a gross of $95 million and 415,219 tickets sold across eight stadium concerts between Aug. 1 and 31, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the band is finally No. 1.
These grosses pushed the No Filter Tour’s final gross to $415.6 million, making it the eighth highest-grossing outing of all time. It is the group’s second tour to join the all-time top 10, following A Bigger Bang Tour’s $558 million gross from 2005-07.
Since Billboard began publishing monthly touring recaps in March, each No. 1 on the Top Tours chart has out-grossed the previous one. The Rolling Stones’ gargantuan August total is no exception, shooting past P!nk’s $61.5 million in July to set a new high mark. Further, their $95 million gross is the highest one-month total for any act since 2011, when British boy-band Take That surpassed $100 million touring U.K. stadiums.
Moreover, after July’s photo finish between the Stones and P!nk, the band’s August intake is more than double that of Ed Sheeran at No. 2 ($45.1 million). Sheeran is one of a handful artists who have ranked on all seven of Billboard’s monthly Top Tours charts, though it will presumably be his last appearance for some time, as the record-setting The Divide Tour wrapped on Aug. 26 with a 30-month total of $776 million. Sheeran was in the top 10 for six of these seven months and was No. 1 in April.
Notably, despite trailing the Stones by $50 million, Sheeran notches the month’s best-selling tour, with 451,710 tickets compared to the Stones’ 415,219. As documented in our coverage of The Divide Tour, Sheeran kept ticket prices low, creating a foundation for The Divide Tour’s longevity and sustainability to ultimately become the highest grossing tour of all time. The Rolling Stones, proven touring troubadours over many decades, were able to push top tier ticket prices toward $500 to amass their chart-topping grosses.
Though they have not yet topped the monthly Top Tours listing, Metallica enjoy a fourth consecutive month of $30 million-plus earnings. Though they have consistently circled the top five due to the clutter of the summer stadium tours, their $33 million August intake would have been enough to top the chart in February, March, and April.
Rounding out the top five of the Top Tours chart is a pair of cross-generational boy bands. The Jonas Brothers and Backstreet Boys take Nos. 4-5 with a combined $50 million. Now 14 years removed from the formation of the Jonas Brothers and 26 years from that of Backstreet Boys, both artists are in the middle of massive world tours, proving their continued strength amongst younger acts on this month’s chart like Sheeran, Shawn Mendes, and Khalid.
Alongside fellow monthly Boxscore mainstays The Rolling Stones and Ed Sheeran, P!nk played the final dates of her own ongoing mega-tour, wrapping The Beautiful Trauma World Tour on Aug. 19 with $397 million. On this month’s Top Tours chart, the powerhouse diva is No. 6, after topping the March and July editions. P!nk is one of only four solo women on this month’s chart, with Ariana Grande (No. 13), Jojo Siwa (No. 19) and Janet Jackson (No. 22). Additionally, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVice of Fleetwood Mac check in at No. 25.
This inequality has been consistent on the Top Tours chart since its launch earlier this year. The number of female acts has ranged from a high of seven (23% of the chart) in May and June to a low of three (P!nk, Cher, and Grande) in April.
Top Boxscores: All seven of The Rolling Stones’ No Filter Tour entries crack this month’s Top Boxscores chart, six of which are in the top 10 (the seventh ranks No. 11). But while they dominate the chart in pure volume, the highest-grossing engagement of the month is San Francisco’s Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, promoted by Another Planet Entertainment. The three-day festival earned $29.6 million and sold over 200,000 tickets.
The Top Boxscores ranking is evenly split by 15 engagements in the U.S. and 15 international dates. The domestic portion is mostly fueled by The Rolling Stones with sprinklings from Queen + Adam Lambert, Jackson and the Jonas Brothers. The foreign half gets boosts from Metallica and Ed Sheeran, as well as Ariana Grande, Hugh Jackman, and Fleetwood Mac.
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