We see bands/artists these days making millions of pounds profit from huge tours and Brian himself has said that the Magic tour was the only one that did make a profit because it was so big so was it a mega millions profit or what?
It was the first one to make a profit,but not a huge one! back then tickets cost about £15 or less,so as they played to about 1 million people that equals about £15 Million.From this comes out the promoters cut,and the cost of staging the show(the new stage set was massive).Today bands can charge say £100 for a ticket,and get sponsorship on top of that.In 1986,sponsorship was pretty unheard of,the 2 Wembley shows were partly funded by Capitol Radio/Harp Lager.Ironically,1987 was the year sponsoring of the shows really took off,with Pepsi and Michael Jackson's Bad tour.In a nutshell,most of the big money today comes from touring,in Queen's day,it was album sales.To answer the question,it probably made a couple of million quid at most.
The amount of money generated at Knebworth must have topped a few million on its own.Just on ticket sales it must have been pretty close to £1.2M.Then there's the tour merchandise.
e-man wrote:
interesting question! I would love to know what kind of money we're talking about. especially compared to the earlier tours
I once read that the Magic tour was the only time they ever made money on the road.
They pumped so much money into their stage show that they almost always took a loss.
Difficult to answer as there are a number of Queen businesses that would have been involved, however it is possible to search company records and see profits and loss. Not sure if Queen Touring was in operation then but that would be a good place to start. Pretty sure it was just about the highest grossing tour of it's day but it will pale compared to big tours now
OK so each ticket..15 pounds, we'll assume a profit margin for the band of 15%, so that equals 2.25, divided by 4 which equals 56pence per ticket. 1million tickets so for each band member a cheque of half a million give or take (i know they made a loss on the budapest gig).
una999 wrote:
OK so each ticket..15 pounds, we'll assume a profit margin for the band of 15%, so that equals 2.25, divided by 4 which equals 56pence per ticket. 1million tickets so for each band member a cheque of half a million give or take (i know they made a loss on the budapest gig).
but they got a complete film delivered, with publishing rights all over the world for the next xxx years , all paid indirectly by the Hungarian state and local corporate sponsors... that was the deal in Hungary, when RT or BM say they lost money, they should actually add the profit from the video release...
una999 wrote:
OK so each ticket..15 pounds, we'll assume a profit margin for the band of 15%, so that equals 2.25, divided by 4 which equals 56pence per ticket. 1million tickets so for each band member a cheque of half a million give or take (i know they made a loss on the budapest gig).
The profit margin will depend on what point the tour breaks even, most didnt back then, they were used to promote the band and drive record sales, Queen were one of the few that did make money touring but you are making a lot of assumptions that there is no evidence for.
On paper any compnay can be drawn up like that, but it's much more complicated.
Bit of a pointless conversation. None of you know details of contracts, expenses, tax havens(!) etc. Complete speculation.
However, I would take with a pinch of salt the band's claim they never made money on tours. Despite over-inflated claims about the size of Queen's live shows, amount of lights used, sfx etc., Queen weren't that bigger or that different from many other large rock bands in the 1970s, and therefore there's no reason to believe they spent so much money on equipment and effects that they never made any profit. It all sounds more like a bit of misdirection for the tax man. It may be true for the South American shows though.
e-man wrote:
interesting question! I would love to know what kind of money we're talking about. especially compared to the earlier tours
I once read that the Magic tour was the only time they ever made money on the road.
They pumped so much money into their stage show that they almost always took a loss.
they're certainly not making any money from this tour