My Chemical Romance Underplay Grosses Nearly $1.5 Million, a Record for the Shrine

By Shirley Halperin

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – My Chemical Romance’s Dec. 20 show at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles raked in record box office for the venue, the band’s agency, Paradigm, reveals. A full and instant sell-out at 4,993, its total gross was $1,451,745, the highest-grossing ever at the downtown L.A. landmark, which was built in 1925 and has hosted such events as the Emmy Awards and 2018’s “A Star Is Born” premiere. The band also broke outperformed in merchandise sales.

Speaking to Variety last month , agent Matt Galle noted that he had been “getting offers for [the last] seven to eight years” for the band to play, having been dormant for some seven years. In turn, Gerard Way and crew began considering the prospect, waiting for “the right time.” Added Galle: “2019 was a year that that made sense to them. They had some backstory with their [2010 album] ‘Danger Days.’ They knew they wanted to do one show and …  they’re excited about the demand and the response and what else is coming for next year.”

Variety‘s own review of the Shrine concert noted that a “grateful, still baby-faced Gerard Way” led a triumphant evening during which the group opted to forego “the theatrics, costumes, and pyro … to play an epic, career-spanning set — sounding as if they’d never left.”

The show opened with the anthemic “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” and ended with the epic “Welcome to the Black Parade,” with fan favorites like “Mama,” “Teenagers,” “Vampire Money,” “Thank You for the Venom” and “You Know What They do to Guys Like Us in Prison” (with Youth Code’s Sara Taylor).