RIHANNA #1 MONEY MAKING TOUR

Manchester Arena and O2 Arena, the two largest indoor arenas in the U.K., dominate this week's Hot Tours rankings with concert box office totals reported from the final quarter of 2011. Eight of the 10 top-grossing tours in this week's tally are based on the reported grosses from these two arenas. Rihanna is No. 1 with ticket sales revenue from the final European leg of her Loud Tour that began in June 2011 and wrapped in December. Included in her reported totals are seven headlining performances at O2 Arena during the final two months of 2011 (Nov. 13-15, Dec. 1, 20-22). More than 116,000 fans attended the seven London shows with tickets sales totaling £5.3 million ($8.5 US$). The Manchester Arena also reported three Rihanna concerts, adding £2 million ($3.1 US$) to the native Barbadian's $12.6 million combined box office gross that lands her this week's top ranking. In addition to these two U.K. arenas, the 15,000-seat O2 World in Hamburg, Germany also reported ticket sales from its Loud Tour performance on Dec. 4 that drew a sellout crowd of 13,409. Ranking second is Red Hot Chili Peppers with grosses reported from three performances in London and two in Manchester. The London shows, on Nov. 7, 9 and 10, were attended by 48,181 fans, and the Manchester Arena sold 26,536 tickets for concerts on Nov. 14 and 15. Combined revenue for both venues was £3.5 million ($5.7 US$). Sir Paul McCartney, No. 3 this week, earned his Hot Tours ranking from single concerts in London (Dec. 5) and Manchester (Dec. 19) with crowds of 14,946 and 14,800 respectively. The rock legend's combined gross from these two performances was £2.6 million ($4 US$). Coldplay follows at No. 4 with £1.9 million ($2.9 US$) in ticket sales from its Dec. 4 performance in Manchester and Dec. 9 concert in London. Rounding out the top tours based on box office sales from these two U.K. venues are English comedian Lee Evans (No. 5), Canadian rocker Bryan Adams (No. 7), English television personality Alan Carr (No. 8) and pop star Britney Spears