U2 has wrapped the Joshua Tree Tour 2017 with a final five-city sweep through Latin America during October, the tour’s fourth leg since launching in May. With grosses reported by promoter Live Nation, overall sales from 50 performances earned more than $316 million in box office revenue from 2.7 million sold tickets worldwide. With those overall box office counts the jaunt is on track to be one of 2017’s top grossing tours, a familiar situation for the iconic Irish band that has ranked among the top 5 tours of the year seven times since 2000 -- four times at No. 1.
Sales from the tour’s final leg through Latin America, reported during the past week, score U2 a slot on the weekly recap of Hot Tours (see list below) based on $69.6 million in reported revenue from more than half a million sold tickets at five stadiums. The last venue on the trek, the Estádio do Morumbi in São Paulo, Brazil, logged a $32 million take and now ranks as the highest-grossing concert engagement of the year by a solo headliner. With sellout crowds in attendance at all four shows, the combined attendance count at the São Paulo stadium reached 278,718.
During the five-month trek to commemorate the 30th anniversary of U2’s 1987 album The Joshua Tree, the band played each song from the album at every concert. Each performance was staged in a stadium -- 38 of them in three continents. The first leg of the tour, set in North America, began on May 12 and continued through July 1, hitting 15 venues in the U.S. and two in Canada. A headlining turn at the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee on July 9 was also included in the opening leg of the tour.
The second leg was set in European markets, beginning with a two-show stint in London on July 8 and 9. Brussels hosted the final European performance on Aug. 1, and the tour resumed on Sept. 3 with a run through eight American stadiums during September. The final set of 10 concerts in Latin America kicked off on Oct. 3 in Mexico City, followed by performances in Colombia, Argentina and Chile before the final four-night stand in São Paulo.
