The recent Grateful Dead farewell concerts at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara CA (6/27-28) and Chicago’s Soldier Field (7/3-5) pulled in $52.5 million total gross. Cue the Brinks armored cars to the tune of “Truckin'” to haul away the receipts from what was one of the most lucrative live music events ever.
As well, the five shows racked up over 400,000 pay-per-view orders via cable, satellite and online streaming over the two weekends, shattering the last music simulcast record of 160,000 for a 1999 Backstreet Boys concert. (The number will rise as views remain available on cable and satellite to August 2nd.) Since gatherings with multiple viewers were held in public and private venues, the number of people who saw the show is exponentially larger. The upshot? Expect more PPV broadcasts of big name music events.
The yield for the four surviving members of the Dead will increase further with sales of audio and visual releases that will follow the event as well as merchandise. Looks like these Jerry’s kids will benefit nicely.
