Dead & Co.'s 24-show Sphere residency generates an estimated $114 million in ticket revenue alone at $270 per seat. With merchandise and concessions adding $16.8 million and operating costs around $25 million, the profit is massive. Ticketmaster's "Platinum Tickets" scheme buys seats in bulk before public sales and resells them at markups, letting the band, Ticketmaster, and venue profit while fans overpay.
How does Dead Company make $131 million in just 8 weeks of work? The band stopped touring in 2023, but this year they're doing a 24-show residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The average ticket is nearly $270 each show. $270 per ticket times 17,600 tickets equals $114 million across all 24 shows. They also sell merchandise like t-shirts and refreshments like, well, beer and Sprite. That's another $16.8 million in revenue if you use industry averages of spend per person. What about the cost? Their expenses are really low compared to the revenue, about $25 million tops across the residency. Why would any promoter or a venue like the Sphere sign up for this, giving all the revenue to the band? It turns out that the secrets are schemes like Platinum Tickets. Ticketmaster goes in and buys the tickets before you or I get to, and then scalps them to us at a higher price, making hundreds of dollars in the process. Everybody wins. The band wins, Ticketmaster wins, the venue wins, and everybody wins except for us, the consumer, who gets screwed with higher ticket prices.
