Say what you want about one of Australia’s hottest exports (no, we’re not talking about iron ore), but 5 Seconds of Summer have a few million reasons to not care about what the haters have to say. According to a recent report from Billboard, it really pays to be one of the world’s most hated bands.
According to the US industry bible, the Sydney kiddie-punk outfit topped their Hot Tours tally with the final reported grosses for the conclusion of the band’s Sounds Live Feels Live World Tour coming in at a very enviable $26 million in ticket sales. The trek was only the band’s second headlining tour, covering some four continents in eight months.
So what was the overall take for the entire eight-month road trip? According to Billboard, the Sounds Live Feels Live World Tour netted an overall box office take of $39 million from 743,906 sold seats at 102 performances. It seems it pays to be the world’s most hated band.
As Tone Deaf has previously reported, 5 Seconds of Summer have been named the Worst Band In The World twice by UK music mag NME. Last year saw them beating out some fairly stiff competition such as One Direction (who effectively own the Sydney band), Little Mix, Sleaford Mods, U2, and Nickelback.
The boys didn’t seem to mind the dubious title the first time around, with alt-haired guitarist Michael Clifford tweeting at the time, “Won the NME worst band award. I’m so damn happy right now. thx to everyone who voted #dreamscomingtrue.”
Clifford’s bandmate Ashton Irwin similarly took this year’s accolade in stride, taking to his official Twitter account to celebrate the news, writing, “NME worst band 2 years running, we are unstoppable at being the worst.”
They’re also seemingly unstoppable and making a whole lot of money. The band’s show at London’s O2 Arena alone managed to bring in $1.3 million in sales earned from 25,408 fans at sold out performances on 7th and 8th April. And that wasn’t even the highest gross for a single performance, which was $838,378 at Manila’s SM Mall of Asia Arena the previous month.
Coming in with the silver on the Hot Tours tally was the Dixie Chicks, who managed to reap $19.4 million in box office revenue from 24 of their final 2016 concerts on the DCX MMXVI World Tour. This was followed by legendary jam bands Phish ($8,903,461) and the also relatively hated Dave Matthews Band ($5,952,568), and Drake and Future, who netted $1,752,511.
