Motley Crue, Def Leppard Stadium Tour Grosses $173.5 Million

2022-09-29

Motley Crue performing at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Michigan in 2015.

Motley Crue – Story by Anne Erickson, photo by Ken Settle

Average ticket sales for each concert were 37,520, with an average earning per night of $4.96 million

It was postponed for two years, but the dollars show it was worth the wait, as Def Leppard and Motley Crue’s co-headlining stadium tour pulled in a massive $173.5 million over the summer. Those numbers make it the highest grossing tour of either group’s career.

The bill for the much-anticipated trek featured Motley Crue and Def Leppard, alongside Poison and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts. Average ticket sales for each concert were 37,520, with an average earning per night of $4.96 million. The largest market was Boston, with the groups performing two nights Fenway Park on August 5 and 6, selling 64,000 tickets sold for $9.3 million. Other cities that pulled in more cash than most included making more than $6 million included dates in Charlotte, North Carolina; Denver, Colorado; Glendale, Arizona; and Inglewood, California.

This tour marked a reunion for Motley Crue, who had previously made a big splash about retiring. The band came out of retirement for the tour, hot off the buzz that came from the band’s hotly-anticipated biopic, “The Dirt.” It appears Motley Crue have no plans to slow down in 2023 and 2024, as Motley Crue vocalist Vince Neil recently told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the group plans on performing many more concerts over the next couple years. Right now, they have European shows lined up for 2023 and plan to add U.S. dates for 2023 and 2024.

Last year, Motley Crue bass player Nikki Sixx told Audio Ink Radio that the band is like a family. He explained that it’s been “very painful for me when the band has been on the verge of breaking up, because the band is- I threw my life into this band. I threw my life as a lyricist into this band and exposed things about myself or things that I saw in this band. I’m so lucky that I met Tommy and Vince and Mick, and they’ve changed my life, and I’ve hopefully helped changed their life. We really, maybe, changed a lot of other people’s lives, even on an entertainment level. So, yeah, the idea of Motley Crue not being in my life feels very strange.”

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Anne Erickson

Meet the expert - Author, writer and editor Anne Erickson is a Detroit-based music reporter and radio host. She has written for the USA Today Network, Consequence.net, Blabbermouth.net, Loudwire.com and many more. Anne holds a master's degree from Michigan State University. Contact Anne at anne@audioinkradio.com.