Jamie Foxx's concert tour a quiet blockbuster

03/09/2007 7:17 PM, Reuters
Fred Bronson

Jamie Foxx is quietly enjoying one of the most successful concert tours of the year, even if raw numbers indicate otherwise.

The Oscar-winning actor/comedian/singer's Unpredictable tour, which began last December and runs through the spring, is playing a lot of arenas with curtaining systems that can move capacity up or down to suit demand. It's the most successful arena-theater configuration tour since Bruce Springsteen's Devils and Dust trek in 2005.

Promoter Gregg Perloff says the tour is consistently playing to 6,000 or more people per night, when capacity allows. But since arenas often hold at least twice that number, there seems to have been a general misconception in the business that the tour was doing less-than-expected business.

"We were setting up these buildings for 4,500 to 5,000 capacity, and we were doing 5,500 to 6,000, selling out our original intent and adding seats," Perloff says. "But people were thinking the tour was not doing well at first."

The tour was tough to peg, even though Foxx's "Unpredictable" album has moved 1.9 million units, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The tour made cautious sense in theaters, but the five-truck production -- and ultimately demand -- seemed to call for larger venues.

There are still theaters on the route. Foxx sold out two Aladdins in Las Vegas for a total of 13,500 people, and "in Atlanta we decided to do multiples at the Fox because it's such a fabulous building. We'll probably do 13,000 people there in three shows," says Perloff, president of Another Planet Entertainment .

Mike Evans, executive VP of sports and entertainment for Philadelphia-based venue management firm SMG, says Foxx has proved a big draw in diverse markets, including Seattle; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Orlando, Fla.; and San Antonio.

"By having the ability to do these shows in the cut-down situation, we were constantly monitoring sales and being able to expand in some places," Evans says.

The performance itself is "unpredictable," with Foxx doing 35 minutes of comedy followed by more than an hour of music, including his own hits and songs from the movie "Ray."

"In addition to his Oscar, all the awards and the stand-up comedy, a lot of people don't realize Jamie Foxx is an accomplished musician," Perloff says, adding that touring dollars for an actor of Foxx's stature hardly compare with what can be made playing to 6,000-7,000 people per night.

"He's absolutely doing this (tour) for the love of doing it," Perloff says. "The rewards financially are nowhere near his film stuff or his TV comedy stuff."

Reuters/Billboard