Dralion by Cirque du Soleil’s Clare O’Connell, Sean McKeown and cast join CN Centre's General Manager Glen Mikkelsen and Event and Marketing Manager Tracy Shaw, to celebrate eight consecutive sold-out shows in Prince George, British Columbia, Jan. 3. (Photo by Jim Vanderploeg)
The machine that is Cirque du Soleil continues to press full steam ahead. Cirque earned nine of the 20 spots on this week’s Hot Tickets; two from Quidam, three from Dralion and four from Varekai. The Quidam run from Dec. 18-28, 2014, at the MEO Arena, Lisbon, Portgual hosted the highest-grossing Cirque run on the chart, with more than $4 million in 70,000 tickets priced from $82-$43. The shows were co-promoted by Cirque du Soleil and Everything is New.
Quidam is currently on an 18-day break and will be returning to action at the Romexpo, Bucharest, Romania, with six shows scheduled for Jan. 29-Feb. 1. The cast of Dralion rang in the New Year with 8 sold-out shows at CN Centre, Prince George, British Columbia, Dec. 31, 2014-Jan. 4, 2015, bringing in $1.3 million on 23,234 tickets sold. Dralion originally debuted as a tent show in 1999 and converted to an arena show in 2010. The big top tent made 32 different stops between 1999-2003 and 188 stops at venues all over the world from 2004-2015. The upcoming Jan. 14-18 run at Sullivan Arena, Anchorage, Alaska will be the end of the line, marking the final performances for a show that has been touring more than 14 years.
Eric Church breaks into the chart with a Jan. 10 performance at Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tenn., promoted by The Messina Group and AEG Live. Over 18,000 “Church Choir” members, the name Church’s fans have dubbed themselves, packed the arena for another sold-out night of The Outsiders World Tour. No stranger to awards ceremonies, Church will make his debut Grammy performance at the 57th annual Grammy Awards hosted at Staples Center, Los Angeles where he is also nominated for four awards. Church’s next stop will be Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City, on Jan.14 before heading to Sin City for back-to-back nights at The Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on Jan. 16-17.
HOT TICKETS is a weekly summary of the top acts and ticket sales as reported to VT PULSE. Following are the top 20 concerts and events, the top 5 in each seating capacity category, which took place between Dec. 16, 2014-Jan. 13.
15,001 or More Seats | 10,001-15,000 Seats | 5,001-10,000 Seats | 5,000 or Fewer Seats |
1) Disney on Ice: Frozen 2) Cirque du Soleil Quidam 3) Cirque du Soleil Varekai 4) Cirque du Soleil Varekai 5) Eric Church | 1) Cirque du Soleil Varekai 2) Chris Brown 3) Jingle Ball 4) The Wiggles 5) Steven Curtis Chapman, Third Day | 1) Cirque du Soleil Quidam 2) Cirque du Soleil Dralion 3) Cirque du Soleil Varekai 4) Cirque du Soleil Dralion 5) Cirque du Soleil Dralion | 1) Nevada Ballet Theatre: The Nutcracker 2) Miami City Ballet 3) Jerry Seinfeld 4) Beauty and the Beast 5) A Christmas Carol |
| The Weekly Hot Tickets chart is compiled by Daniel Gray. To submit reports, e-mail HotTickets@venuestoday.com or fax to (714) 378-0040. | |||