“The Eras Tour” officially surpasses “RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR” as the #1 highest grossing female tour in history, with the US leg only

“The Eras Tour” officially surpasses “RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR” as the #1 highest grossing female tour in history, with the US leg only.

It’s also the most lucrative. Beginning in March and ending in August, Swift played 56 stadium shows across 20 U.S. cities and Mexico City, grossing more than an estimated $780 million and earning the 33-year-old pop queen an estimated $305 million.

Spanning nearly two decades and 10 albums, the Eras Tour is more than a retrospective of Swift’s career, it’s also a financial phenomenon. Because of the tremendous economic impact concert tours have on cities, Swift and Beyoncé–who pocked an estimated $145 million from her record-breaking Renaissance World Tour this summer—were credited by Morgan Stanley for adding $5.4 billion to the U.S. economy in the third quarter.

The Eras Tour hit stadiums for the first time back in March, and Swift went on to play more than 50 stadiums across the U.S. in what has been her most lucrative tour yet—grossing more than $780 million and earning Swift an estimated $305 million, according to Forbes’ estimates. The tour, which was the top tour of 2023, grossed more than double what Beyoncé took home for her Renaissance Tour, which also ran over the summer. And Swift is just getting started: The second half of the Eras Tour is set to resume November 9 with shows in Asia and Europe before she returns to North America. By the time it finishes next year, it is expected to be the first tour to gross well over a billion dollars.

Both superstars will continue to reap millions with the release of their concert movies. Swift’s, which cost a reported $15 million to produce, according to the New York Times, is expected to earn upwards of $125 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend and another $60 million internationally. Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé, premieres December 1. (Forbes’ estimates in this story do not include potential or pre-sale grosses from the films.)

But not every dollar spent on a tour goes directly into the headliner’s pocket. “When you’re doing tours of this magnitude, you could have a staff of hundreds doing services on the road,” Jarred Arfa, head of global music at Independent Artists Group, which represents Billy Joel and Metallica, among many others, tells Forbes. “The list is never ending.”

The Eras Tour film had the seventh best opening day of 2023 yet, Deadline reported, and claimed the best opening day of the fall with its $39 million total, bringing new life into the movie season that has been suffering while actors remain on strike and are unable to promote projects. For the year, it’s between this year’s hit films Oppenheimer, which brought in $43 million and The Little Mermaid, which earned $38 million, according to Variety.