It's no secret that staging this year's Super Bowl in Atlanta made for one charged up weekend, not even counting the actual game that took place. It was a prime space to host a number of music-centric events with the industry's biggest stars descending upon the Southern city for a host of shows and according to Boxscore, those shows happened to put up big numbers on the boards, particularly at the city's State Farm Arena.
The site, home to the Atlanta Hawks, doubles as a premier concert venue and was host to three nights of sold-out festivities that weekend, starting off with Ludacris' headlining bout which sold 11,149 tickets and earned $1.3 million. The next night was helmed by Aerosmith and Post Malone and together they sold out to an arena of 12,894 for a gross of $3.6 million. But Billboard reports that the record-breaking spectacle came on Saturday, Feb 2nd when Cardi B and Bruno Mars sold out to an arena of 14,152 and earned $6.5 million, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Boxscore chart.
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If you're wondering how Ludacris can sell 11,149 tickets compared to Cardi B and Bruno Mars' 14,152 and still sell out, it all goes down to logistics. This means that the arena, like many others like it, has various pre-selected stage set ups for different types of shows and audience expectancies. Ludacris just so happened to sell out his set up and so forth.
As for Cardi B and Bruno Mars, it marks a new record set for the 20-year-old State Farm Arena with their tally of $6.473 million setting the record for the highest single-night gross ever. The only other act to outperform this number at the venue, formerly Philips Arena, was a seven-show stint headlined by Garth Brooks back in 2014, which earned $6.634 million total.