Week 82 Chart News

[doctorwho]

This is a repost in the new forum for the Week 81 and 82 U.S. chart news.

In Week 81, ATYCLB dropped to #119 on the U.S. Billboard charts (down from #107 the week before) and sold 9,321 copies, down from 11,712 copies the week prior (Week 80). This was the lowest weekly sales for the album in the U.S. since its release.

In Week 82, the album drops to #131, the lowest chart position it has ever been in the U.S. However, its sales remained very steady, even increasing ever so slightly, to 9,353 copies.

Nine weeks ago, ATYCLB sold 29,292 copies. Eight weeks back, although the album remained virtually at the same position on the charts, it sold 22,108 copies. Seven weeks ago, according to SoundScan, ATYCLB sold 17,606 copies. Six weeks ago, ATYCLB sold 14,259 copies. Five weeks back, ATCYLB sold 12,837 copies. Four weeks ago, ranking at #103, ATYCLB sold 11,202 copies. Three weeks ago, for the first time in the 6 weeks, the album rose in sales, not by much, but it was an increase, with sales of 11,712 copies. Last week (Week 81), the album suffered a rather large drop to 9,321 copies sold. This week, Week 82, the album remained VERY steady, selling 9,353 copies.

United States

The first 82 weeks for ATYCLB on the U.S. Billboard charts are:

3-5-12-22-23-24-20(1xP)-18-22-16
19-19(2xP)-25-33-37-35-11(3xGrammy)-15-25-31
38-40-42-45-45-48-50-48-50-58
60-53-50-66-74-82-81-89-88-99
105-106-108-104-78-66-53-50-57-55
54-58(3xP)-62-67-80-77-78-76-69-71
74-58-39-56-61-66-25(SBowl)-26-28-10(4xGrammy)
17-25-37-47-48-55-65-83-103-107
119-131

"POP" was out of the Top 100 after 19 weeks and "Zooropa" was out of the Top 100 after 31 weeks. ATYCLB fell out of the Top 100 after 40 weeks, however, it had returned for an additional 34 weeks.

ATYCLB spent 74 out of 82 total weeks in the U.S. Top 100; 30 weeks in the U.S. Top 40; and 3 weeks in the U.S. Top 10.

Approximate weekly sales for the first 82 weeks of ATYCLB are (rounded to nearest thousand):

428,000 + 176,000 + 119,000 + 125,000 + 100,000 + 113,000 + 154,000 + 259,000 + 108,000 + 66,000 + 59,000 + 57,000+ 47,000 + 44,000 + 41,000 + 49,000 + 85,000 + 74,000 + 54,000 + 48,000 + 43,000 + 39,000 + 37,000 + 39,000 + 30,000 + 29,000 + 26,000 + 29,000 + 25,000 + 24,000 + 27,000 + 30,000 + 31,000 + 24,000 + 22,000 + 18,000 + 19,000 + 17,000 + 17,000 + 15,000 + 14,000 + 14,000 + 13,000 + 13,000 + 16,000 + 19,000 + 21,000 + 23,000 + 22,000 + 22,000 + 24,000 + 25,000 + 24,000 + 23,000 + 21,000 + 28,000 + 28,000 + 30,000 + 46,000 + 72,000 + 42,000 + 28,000 + 26,000 + 19,000 + 20,000 + 19,000 + 46,000 + 53,000 + 36,000 + 81,000 + 56,000 + 40,000 + 32,000 + 29,000 + 22,000 + 18,000 + 14,000 + 13,000 + 11,000 + 12,000 + 9,000 + 9,000

Exact U.S. SoundScan sales are: 3,868,526 copies (note that the sum of the weekly estimates is off from the exact total due to rounding). The album is slighly over 130,000 copies from the 4x Platinum mark in the U.S.

Prior ATYCLB chart data:

Highest Rankings for "Beautiful Day": #21 on the Hot 100 chart, #1 on the Dance Charts, #5 on the Modern Rock chart, #4 on the Adult Top 40 chart.

Highest Rankings for "Suck in a Moment...": #52 on the Hot 100 chart, #9 on the Adult Top 40 chart.

Highest Rankings for "Elevation": #9 on the Modern Rock chart. I *believe* #17 on the Dance charts.

Highest Rankings for "Walk On": #10 on the Modern Rock chart.

 

[Basstrap]

wow!!
u2 rock!

 

[Laura_Pattison]

Have u any idea how much the band made on their elevation tour??

 

[doctorwho]

Have u any idea how much the band made on their elevation tour??

STING2 knows!

Go for it Sting!

 

[STING2]

U2 grossed $143 million dollars from their 113 date arena tour for Elevation. POPMART Grossed $171 million dollars from 93 stadium shows.

 

[Popmartijn]

Hello,

There is still no sign of ATYCLB in the Dutch charts. However, The Best Of... is getting a remarkable chart run (for the moment). The album re-entered the charts 4 weeks ago and is now at #49!
Here is the total run (for its 11th chart run):
93-66-55-55-49

Nevertheless, I hope ATYCLB will return soon to the charts, but for now I'll settle with The Best Of...

C ya!

Marty (who has to get used to the new forum format)

 

[Basstrap]

U2 grossed $143 million dollars from their 113 date arena tour for Elevation. POPMART Grossed $171 million dollars from 93 stadium shows.

Yeah, but there are certain things to take into consideration there. Mainly that every Popmart show cost about a million dollars tp put off!!

 

[oliveu2cm]

Yeah, but there are certain things to take into consideration there. Mainly that every Popmart show cost about a million dollars tp put off!!

Good point. Is this estimate before or after tour expenses? PopMart did very well though, despite the (heartbreakingly) empty stadiums, especially at first in the US. But... I think tickets were more expensive for PopMart, right?

 

[doctorwho]

Good point. Is this estimate before or after tour expenses? PopMart did very well though, despite the (heartbreakingly) empty stadiums, especially at first in the US. But... I think tickets were more expensive for PopMart, right?

Looks like someone needs a lesson in "gross" and "net."

Sting2 reported the grosses for both tours. This is the same thing that we see from weekend movie numbers. For example, last weekend, "Sum of All Fears" grossed $31M at the U.S./Canadian box office. In other words, this is how much money the tours or the film made - period.

Net is how much PROFIT was made after accounting for expenses. For example, "Attack of the Clones" cost about $120M to make and probably another $30M to market (very little marketing is done for "Star Wars" films as name recognition alone is enough). That means, that the film cost $150M to produce. Plus, there are some additional costs for film prints, overseas distribution, dubbing, overseas marketing, etc. As you can see, the total adds up rather quickly. However, in the U.S./Canadian box offices alone, "Attack of the Clones" has already grossed $236M. That means, with a total production cost of $150M, it has already enjoyed a NET profit of $86M.

With that in mind, U2's high production cost for the PopMart tour meant very little net profit, despite the fact that it out-grossed the Elevation tour. In fact, I'm sure U2 made more net profit from the Elevation tour because the production costs were down.

But people don't always compare net profits - they compare actual grosses. For example, when you discuss your salary, you dont' say, "I make xxx amount net" - you state your annual gross salary (before taxes, health benefits, social security, etc.). So when comparing grosses only, PopMart appears to be the more successful tour.

 

[STING2]

Just to add a little to the discussion of POPMART. U2 was guaranteed $100 million in profit for POPMART. That was the deal with Michael Cohl. Yes, a big risk for Mr. Cohl, in fact U2 had contacted two other agencies to promote the tour and both of them turned U2 down. Anything after the 100 million net for U2 went to Mr. Cohl himself. U2 got what they were promised, but I'm not sure how Michael Cohl did. The cost of the tour was 214,000 dollars per day. Thats everyday, not just the day of the show. Nearly 350 days on the road including the the 3 week set up of the stage in Vegas. U2 resold the screens and other parts of the stage.

 

[doctorwho]

Just to add a little to the discussion of POPMART. U2 was guaranteed $100 million in profit for POPMART. That was the deal with Michael Cohl. Yes, a big risk for Mr. Cohl, in fact U2 had contacted two other agencies to promote the tour and both of them turned U2 down. Anything after the 100 million net for U2 went to Mr. Cohl himself. U2 got what they were promised, but I'm not sure how Michael Cohl did. The cost of the tour was 214,000 dollars per day. Thats everyday, not just the day of the show. Nearly 350 days on the road including the the 3 week set up of the stage in Vegas. U2 resold the screens and other parts of the stage.

Are you 100% sure about that number for U2? If the tour cost $214,000/day to keep it running (and I don't question this number as I've heard it quoted a lot), that means for one year of touring, the cost was $78,110,000! I don't think we can count EVERY single day of the year in that figure, but still, you can see the cost being very high.

With that number in mind, if U2 collected $100M from the gross, and with the tour production costs running $78M, that means Cohl would have been in the red by about $7M. If that were true, I hardly doubt he would have wanted to help U2 with this recent tour.

Therefore, my guess is that this $100M figure for U2 is wrong. That just seems like a HUGE sum of money for anyone.

 

[STING2]

Thats what the two companies that turned down U2 before Michael Cohl said. They said hell no, your crazy. Michael Cohl is a risk taker, and POPMART originally had a potential planned Gross figure of 250 million from 100 shows(50,000 per show). But in the end, only 93 shows and a Gross of 171 million. If it had gone as planned, Michael would have walked away with more money than any single member of U2. But of course, that was the spring of 1996 with POPMART a year away. After ZOO TV, no one was sure what U2 could do, most speculated that demand would be higher than that for ZOO TV. But these things are difficult to predict.

Realize that Michael Cohl also promotes another band called the Rolling Stones. He offers them similar deals, and the Stones Grossed $319 million dollars from the Voodoo Lounge 1994-1995 tour. Then in 1997-1999, he promoted the Stones Bridges To Babylon tour which did $337 million dollars in Gross. Michael probably walked away from those two tours with a combined 150 million dollars. 7 million dollars is like pocket change to him. Mr. Cohl likes to gamble, but you do not always win when you gamble. But Mr. Cohl wins most of the time. He also did a little tour called the Joshua Tree tour and a couple of tours by Pink Floyd. Mr. Cohl also knows that U2 is one of only perhaps 3 or 4 artist that can undertake World Wide Stadium tours. If all the chips land where there suppose to, the Profits with a band like U2 are enormous. POP was a downer for U2 as an album and demand to see the band live fell by nearly 50% from ZOO TV. Still the tour in general was success, just not successful enough for him to make money.

Michael Cohl is known to half cut local promoters out of a lot of money on the POPMART tour. Many people feel this contributed to the low attendence at several American shows as local promoters feeling slighted did not work hard to promote the show. Michael Cohl defended himself by saying he felt the arrangement was fair, since after all, he was taking ALL the risk for U2. The 100 million figure for U2 was quoted in multiple articles.

 

[STING2]

By the way, here is week 81/82 international chart news for ATYCLB:

Canada #63
Ireland #33
United States #119

Total sales for the week are estimated at 11,516 bringing ATYCLB total to an estimated 10,870,368.