The English rock band, The Cure, has recently been in the spotlight for achieving the highest-grossing tour of their career, despite their deliberate efforts to keep ticket prices low for fans during their latest North American tour.
The ‘Shows of a Lost World Tour’ ended up selling a whopping 547,000 tickets, amassing a gross of $37.5 million.
The astounding success of this tour is a new record for the band, surpassing their previous peak in the US where they had sold 402,000 tickets back in 1992.
It also more than doubled the earnings from its 2016 tour, which had raked in $18 million.
While these numbers are incredibly impressive, it’s noteworthy to mention that The Cure could have earned significantly more.
Robert Smith, the band’s frontman, decided to forego potential millions to maintain affordable ticket prices for fans.
This resulted in an average ticket price of $68.54 for the ‘Shows of a Lost World Tour’, which is 37% less than the typical ticket price for top tours that year, as reported by Billboard.
As a way to keep tickets accessible to fans, Smith made several decisions during the ticket sale process.
He rejected Ticketmaster’s ‘platinum’ and ‘dynamic pricing’ ticket options, put restrictions on ticket transfers in places where it was legal to do so, and even made Ticketmaster offer partial refunds for any excessive transaction fees.
The takeaway here is that it’s entirely possible to prioritize fan affordability, sell reasonably priced tickets, and still make millions.
In the coming months, fans of The Cure have more to look forward to as the band is set to headline the Riot Fest in Chicago and also embark on a tour across Latin America.
