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Canadian Highlights Included In Pollstar's Annual Concert Rankings

Four concert firms and two Canadians ranked high in the trade magazine's annual ranking of box-office grosses and ticket sales.

Canadian Highlights Included In Pollstar's Annual Concert Rankings

By David Farrell

Trade publication Pollstar issued its list of top-grossing tours and busiest venues in 2017, ranking B.C. Place 9th in North America, and number 1 in Canada for ticket sales in the category of outdoor stadiums and festival sites.


The downtown venue came in at number 27 worldwide, topping Seattle’s CenturyLink Field and Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium. Mexico City’s Foro Sol was number 1 in the world. – Georgia Straight

Four Canadian concert presenters placed in the Top 100. Quebec-based Evenko placed 13th with ticket sales of 1,342,142 in the year; in second place, at 40, Montreal’s Greenland Productions with ticket sales just shy of 450K; Toronto theatrical presenter Broadway Across Canada placed 74th with almost 200K ticket sales; and Jim Cressman’s BC-based Invictus Entertainment Group placed 82nd, with 156,262 tickets sold.

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Of the top 200 concert grosses, Coldplay’s Aug. 21/22 concert at Rogers Centre Toronto came in 10th place, grossing $8.7M, selling 94,857 tickets over the two nights.

Celine Dion placed 11th overall on the list with 12 shows at Caesar’s Colosseum pulling in $8,579,400 with 50,227 tickets sold over 12 shows in April.

Justin Bieber’s three shows in Feb. at Mexico City’s Foro Sol placed ninth on the list, selling 155,201 tickets to earn a gross of $9,340,236.

– Read more Pollstar annual ranking breakouts here.

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Val Blavatnik
Courtesy WMG

Val Blavatnik

Business News

Val Blavatnik to Oversee Warner Music Canada in New Role at Warner Music Group

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Val Blavatnik, the 28-year-old son of Warner Music Group majority owner and vice chairman Len Blavatnik, has been named managing director of Warner Music North America, U.K. and Corporate Development at the Warner Music Group, the company announced Friday (Sept. 25). In his new role the younger Blavatnik, who has held several roles at the company in recent years, and has been a board member since 2023, expects to “unify and drive business and operational strategy across these markets while guiding the company’s investment strategy to support growth,” according to a press release.

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