The ABBA Voyage, digital hologram show, are a success and could continue forever like the Mamma Mia stage show. Mamma Mia has been running for over 20 years. The hit show, staged in a purpose-built arena in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, welcomed its one-millionth visitor back in April, 2023 and is still playing to joyful, sold-out houses every night, 15 months after it first launched. It’s now booking through May 2024. It cost $175 million to develop. 2 million paid fans were needed to break even and that will be reached soon.
The creators are looking to expand the show. There are possible openings in Las Vegas and elsewhere. Earlier this year, Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge said there are plans are now in development to take ‘ABBA Voyage’ around the world.
ABBA Voyage is a virtual concert residency by the Swedish pop group ABBA. The concerts feature virtual avatars called ABBAtars which show the group as they appeared in 1979. They use the songs’ with originally-recorded vocals accompanied by a live instrumental band on stage. The concerts are held in a purpose-built venue at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, officially called the ABBA Arena.
The ABBA Voyage tour is bonkers.
It cost $175m to create avatars for the band and build a 3000-person venue for virtual-only shows.
Since launching in May 2022, the show has sold 99% of seats and made $150m.
Show economics will be wild moving forward. It makes $2m a week and… pic.twitter.com/lV3SDRHNsn
— Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) September 5, 2023
Voyage became ABBA’s highest-charting album in the United States, entering the Billboard 200 at number two on 20 November 2021, beating their previous high of number 14 with ABBA: The Album in 1978. It opened with 82,000 album-equivalent units, including 78,000 album sales (60,500 of which were physical), making it the highest-selling album of that opening week.
According to IFPI, Voyage was the eighth best-selling album worldwide and the second in album sales list. The album sold 2,050,000 copies in 2021, and over 2.5 million till November 2022.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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Saw an ABBA tribute band this summer. It was a lot of fun.
I will never cross the uncanny valley to watch what is obviously and artificial hologram image.