Posted on: May 29, 2024, 11:02h.
Last updated on: May 29, 2024, 11:02h.
The brakes have been hit on pricey negotiations for a Jennifer Lopez residency on the Las Vegas Strip early next year, according to a report in the New York Post. At issue are sagging sales for her new album and upcoming summer tour.
Lopez had been in talks, with MGM Resorts and Live Nation Entertainment, to perform 90 dates for $90 million at the the 5,200-seat Park Theater at the MGM Grand, according to The Post.
This is Her … Now
That was before “This is Me … Now” became, at least so far, the worst-selling of Lopez’s career. It was also before, according to Variety, seven shows on her concert tour — in Cleveland, Nashville, Raleigh, Atlanta, Tampa, New Orleans, and Houston — had to be quietly scrapped due to “weak ticket sales.”
According to Ticketmaster, a third of the 19,500 seats for Lopez’s Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena concert on July 20 are still unsold.
An unnamed source told The Post that MGM execs are watching Lopez “not doing well on the road” and are “very nervous.”
“It’s pretty rare you have a poor tour and then go to Vegas,” the source is quoted as saying.
The $1 million-per-show figure was based on J. Lo’s highly successful, 130-date residency at Planet Hollywood’s Zappos Theater. Its final show in 2018 set a box office record for the venue of $1.17 million and made J. Lo the fastest performer on the Strip to sell $100 million worth of tickets.
Lopez received about $500 million per show for that two-year residency, according to The Post. That’s the same amount that MGM is currently paying Mariah Carey, and that Caesars Entertainment paid Celine Dion for her two residencies at Caesars Palace. It’s also about half as much as MGM is currently forking over to Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga.
The record to break remains Adele’s $2 million-per-show at Caesars Palace, for a residency scheduled to conclude on June 15.
Feelin’ So Bad
Originally, according to an unconfirmed report in February by Britain’s The Mirror, the offer to J. Lo was $800,000 per residency show. That was until Resorts World chimed in with $875,000 per show — in partnership with Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) — forcing MGM to top it to stay in the running.
But, according to The Post’s source, a Lopez residency is now only worth $600K-$650K for far fewer than 90 shows.
Reps for Lopez and MGM would not entertain requests to comment.
The news comes at a distressing time in the actress/singer’s personal life, as her highly publicized marriage to Ben Affleck is also reportedly crumbling. The on-again/off-again couple got hitched at the Little White Chapel in Vegas less than two years ago, after having been broken up since 2004.
