Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. Tour Tops Hot Tours Tally With First European Totals
Kendrick Lamar scores the highest Hot Tours ranking of the week (see list, below) with ticket sales reported from his DAMN. Tour that resumed in 2018 following an opening trek through North America last summer. The current leg kicked off on Feb. 7 in Ireland, the first stop on a four-week run through European countries that is set to wrap in early March.
His first box-office counts reported from Europe came from two nights at London’s O2 arena, one of two venues on the continent to host the rapper for two concerts. He played the O2 on Feb. 12 and 13 and is booked at AccorHotels Arena in Paris on Feb. 25 and 26. The sold ticket count in London totaled 34,877 during the two-show stint with an overall gross reaching $3.2 million (USD). He previously played the London arena in 2012 as a support artist on Drake’s Club Paradise Tour. Drake also performed two shows at the O2 that year, drawing 34,575 fans.
Lamar is touring in support of his Grammy Award-winning albumDamn that was released in April of last year. The opening run through North America launched on July 12 — three months after the album arrived — and continued through Labor Day weekend, playing arenas in 30 cities. Overall in 2017 the tour earned $40.7 million at the box office from a total of 451,937 sold tickets. With multiple shows in Brooklyn, Toronto, Chicago and Los Angeles, the total number of headlining performances on the opening leg was 35.
The current European run includes 14 cities on the schedule beginning with the opener in Dublin. Six concerts set in four cities in the U.K. followed during the first half of February. Germany will also host multiple shows including the finale that will be held at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin on March 5.
| HOT TOURS – Feb. 20, 2018 | |
| Ranked by Gross. Compiled from Boxscores reported Feb. 6-12 | |
| Rank | ACT |
| Total Gross | |
| Show Date Range | |
| Venue/City (Shows/Sellouts) | |
| Total Attendance (Capacity) | |
| 1 | KENDRICK LAMAR |
| $3,284,010 | |
| Feb. 12-13 | |
| O2 Arena, London (2/2) | |
| 34,877 (34,877) | |
| 2 | CHRIS ROCK |
| $2,104,720 | |
| Jan. 27-28 | |
| O2 Arena, London (2/0) | |
| 30,239 (32,148) | |
| 3 | JAY-Z |
| $2,012,730 | |
| Dec. 21 | |
| The Forum, Inglewood, Calif. (1/1) | |
| 16,084 (16,084) | |
| 4 | DAVE CHAPPELLE & JOHN MAYER |
| $1,938,764 | |
| Dec. 31 | |
| The Forum, Inglewood, Calif. (1/1) | |
| 14,461 (14,461) | |
| 5 | CHRIS YOUNG |
| $1,784,658 | |
| Feb. 1-10 | |
| Tsongas Center at Umass, Lowell, Mass. (1/1) | |
| Cross Insurance Center, Bangor, Maine (1/1) | |
| Grand Theater at Foxwoods, Mashantucket, Conn. (1/1) | |
| Petersen Events Center, Pittsburgh (1/1) | |
| EagleBank Arena, Fairfax, Va. (1/1) | |
| Big Sandy Superstore Arena, Huntington, W. Va. (1/1) | |
| 36,548 (36,548) | |
| 6 | THE ORIGINAL MISFITS |
| $1,599,664 | |
| Dec. 30 | |
| The Forum, Inglewood, Calif. (1/1) | |
| 14,717 (14,717) | |
| 7 | THE KILLERS |
| $904,742 | |
| Feb. 3 | |
| MGM Grand Garden, Las Vegas (1/1) | |
| 12,791 (12,791) | |
| 8 | A-HA |
| $756,521 | |
| Feb. 14 | |
| O2 Arena, London (2/0) | |
| 9,482 (15,613) | |
| 9 | MIRANDA LAMBERT |
| $626,881 | |
| Feb. 10 | |
| The Forum, Inglewood, Calif. (1/0) | |
| 11,760 (12,549) | |
| 10 | GERARDO ORTIZ |
| $593,737 | |
| Feb. 3 | |
| The Forum, Inglewood, Calif. (1/0) | |
| 6,037 (6,859) | |