March 25, 2003 stands as an important date in the history of Las Vegas entertainment. It marked opening night of Celine Dion’s first concert residency, A New Day…, at the new Colosseum at Caesars Palace. Everyone knows that event launched the modern Las Vegas residency model that continues to dominate the live entertainment landscape along the Strip, but it also began a wildly successful 20-years-and-counting run for AEG Presents in Las Vegas.
Over the past two decades, the local office of the live division of LA-based Anschutz Entertainment Group has booked concerts and events at nearly every major venue in town, opened several landmark theaters and showrooms and brought many of the most iconic artists in the world to Las Vegas. Collectively, AEG Presents Las Vegas programming has accounted for more than $2 billion in gross ticket revenue, selling approximately 19.7 million tickets to Vegas shows.
Senior Vice President John Nelson came to town when AEG first finished the deal with Caesars, Dion, her husband René Angélil and director Franco Dragone to build and operate the Colosseum exclusively for Dion’s show. “We didn’t know how it would be received or how it would go, but it was such an immediate and long-term success, it started an entirely new business for us out here,” Nelson says.
For 16 years, AEG ran the Colosseum, producing other residencies with Elton John, Cher, Bette Midler, Shania Twain, Mariah Carey, Rod Stewart and more, along with one-off and limited engagement music and comedy events. As casino resorts developed more and larger venues, AEG grew its footprint, most notably with the 2009 revamp of the Hard Rock Hotel and the new version of its iconic music hall, the Joint.
Bobby Reynolds came to Vegas from Chicago to oversee that project, and these days, as a senior vice president with AEG, he continues to program the current version of that room, the Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, along with Encore Theater at Wynn and other spaces and events.
“I think [Las Vegas] is really significant for AEG, and certainly earlier on in our company’s tenure, the Vegas piece was always so strong with Celine and our roster of resident artists,” Reynolds says. “That really helped AEG continue to operate and reinvest, in Vegas and to grow our presence in regional markets and venues.”
Celine at the Colosseum gets a lot of credit for breaking ground in Las Vegas, and justifiably so, but the Joint’s impact on the concert scene is immeasurable. It pioneered rock residencies with Santana (before he moved to his current, longtime home at the House of Blues), Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard, Journey and Mötley Crüe, not to mention the many acts that played the Hard Rock and might not have otherwise performed in Las Vegas.
“I still think it had one of the best opening lineups ever, with The Killers, Paul McCartney, Kenny Chesney and Bon Jovi in a week’s time,” Reynolds says. “I also clearly remember booking Imagine Dragons to open for Weezer for $500, and not long after that, for Interpol for a whopping $1,000. Seeing them play New Year’s Eve several years ago as a legit headliner on their way to becoming a worldwide rock band was memorable. We’ve done a lot of impressive things there.”
AEG also opened T-Mobile Arena with Guns N’ Roses, Allegiant Stadium with Illenium and Resorts World Theatre with Carrie Underwood. (Dion was originally scheduled to christen Resorts World Theatre but had to delay her new residency show for health reasons.) From Dolby Live to Michelob Ultra Arena to MGM Grand Garden, name a big room on the Strip and AEG has placed superstars on those stages: Katy Perry, Nine Inch Nails, Lionel Richie, Jim Gaffigan, Diana Ross, Luke Bryan, Lady Gaga, Widespread Panic, Tony Bennett, Robbie Williams, Reba McEntire and countless others.
The Rolling Stones set a record gross of $12.8 million at Allegiant Stadium. Encore Theater, crowded with unique comedy and musical residencies, plus interesting and diverse upcoming bookings like Ali Wong, the Pixies and George Benson, regularly notches the accomplishment of highest-grossing theater for a room with a capacity under 3,000—and it only seats 1,500. And as a brand-new theater, Resorts World’s largest venue was named Billboard’s top venue for a capacity of 5,000 or less among 2022 year-end box office scores.
“I see more growth in Las Vegas,” Reynolds says. “We will continue to book new resident artists at Resorts World, where the word in the industry is it’s arguably the best theater in the U.S. I also want to bring more comedy there, too, which we started with Kevin Hart.”
With Adele breaking records in the house Celine built and U2 planning to invade Las Vegas at the coming-soon MSG Sphere, the idea of the concert residency continues to change and flourish. The next big thing could very well be Dion’s return at Resorts World; no dates are scheduled yet, but she’s primed to return to performing in August in Amsterdam, and her tour plans open up in the fall—when she could make her biggest splash during the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix on the Strip.
“Resorts World, in its first year, was the busiest theater in the world in its category,” says Nelson, who confirms AEG is prepared to put Dion onstage in Vegas when she’s ready to sing. “Audiences are coming back to Vegas. The one thing [Las Vegas] has been waiting on since the pandemic has been the convention crowd, and now that’s coming roaring back. I think this year, Las Vegas will set new records for visitation across the board.”
And AEG stands ready to provide all the live entertainment those visitors could ever imagine.
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