Hot Tours: Taylor Swift, George Strait, Cirque Du Soleil

Taylor Swift is at a familiar perch atop Hot Tours with box office grosses reported from the last leg of her Speak Now World Tour that wrapped on March 18 in Auckland, New Zealand. The tour's final leg, a six-city trek through Australia and New Zealand, kicked off on March 2 in Western Australia at Perth's Burswood Dome. With sellout crowds at all performances, a total of 137,879 tickets were sold during the 12-concert outing that lasted just over two weeks. The tour, Swift's second as a headliner, launched in February of last year in Singapore and played markets in Asia, Europe and North America throughout 2011 before the final show of the year in New York City last November. Resuming the tour in March of this year for a final leg Down Under, Swift added more than $15.8 million to the overall tour gross that topped $123 million from a total of 110 performances. More than 1.6 million fans saw the Speak Now World Tour during its 13-month run.

Ranking second in this week's Hot Tours recap is country legend George Strait, grossing $3.6 million in ticket sales revenue from the final four dates on his 2012 tour that ran from Jan. 27 through March 4. From the 10 concerts reported by AEG Live promoter, The Messina Group, overall attendance on the five-week tour was 141,168 with ticket sales topping $9.5 million. The top gross and highest number of sold seats came from the 20,000-seat U.S. Airways Center in Phoenix. From a sellout crowd of 17,609, the gross for the Feb. 3 performance was $1,329,531.

Scoring a No. 7 ranking this week is veteran rock band The Moody Blues with sales totals reported from five venues on its 2012 U.S. theater tour that launched on March 11. The first three dates in this week's tally were from Florida venues, the first two at theaters in Melbourne and Sarasota and the las! t Florid a concert, an outdoor event at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre on March 17. Sold out shows followed at Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium on March 21 and the Fox Theatre in Atlanta on March 24. The Atlanta market produced the best-attended performance with a sellout crowd of 4,259.

RankArtist/EventTotal GrossShow DatesShow Venue/City (Shows/Sellouts)Total Attendance (Capacity)1TAYLOR SWIFT$15,830,500March 2-10Burswood Dome, Perth, Australia (1/1)Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide, Australia (1/1)Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane, Australia (2/2)Allphones Arena, Sydney (2/2)Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne (3/3)Vector Arena, Auckland, New Zealand (3/3)137,879 (137,879)2GEORGE STRAIT$3,671,826Feb. 17-March 4Scottrade Center, St. Louis (1/0)INTRUST Bank Arena, Wichita, Kan. (1/0)Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines, Iowa (1/0)Sprint Center, Kansas City (1/1)57,574 (60,008)3CIRQUE DU SOLEIL'S MICHAEL JACKSON TOUR $3,646,620March 20-22Bell Centre, Montreal (3/0)28,504 (38,415)4ELTON JOHN$2,234,626March 20-22Ford Center, Evansville, Ind. (1/1)Wings Stadium, Kalamazoo, Mich. (1/1)Alliant Energy Center, Madison, Wis. (1/1)24,982 (24,982)5LADY ANTEBELLUM$1,621,670Jan. 27-Feb. 4BOK Center, Tulsa, Okla. (1/1)Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines, Iowa (1/1)Bryce Jordan Center, University Park, Pa. (1/1)35,599 (35,599)6BLAKE SHELTON $1,492,092March 13-16Rabobank Arena, Bakersfield, Calif. (1/1)Reno Events Center, Reno, Nev. (1/0)Power Balance Pavilion, Sacramento, Calif. (1/1)HP Pavilion, San Jose (1/1)31,004 (31,524)7THE MOODY BLUES $802,110March 14-24Maxwell C. King Center, Melbourne, Fla. (1/0)Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, Sarasota, Fla. (1/0)St. Augustine Amphitheater, St. Augustine, Fla. (1/0)Ryman Auditorium, Nashville (1/1)Fox Theatre, Atlanta (1/1)13,226 (13,848)8ERIC CHURCH$549,957March 22-24Germain Arena, Estero, Fla. (1/0)UCF Arena, Orlando (1/0)Tallahassee-Leon Co. Civic Ctr., Tallahassee, Fla. (1/0)15,500 (18,747)9NEW ORDER$468,897March 7Hordern Pavilion, Sydney (1/0)5,203 (5,265)10SYSTEM OF A DOWN$413,754Feb. 29Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne (1/0)5,492 (6,069)