Since its inception in 2001, Cardenas Marketing Network (CMN) has grown into one of the world's most dominant concert promoters, a pioneer as Latin music continues to dominate arena and stadium scenes. Example: In Boxscore's interim tracking period, the company rose in every possible metric, posting the highest gross performance and attendance in its history.
According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, CMN grossed $233.3 million and sold 1.9 million tickets from 148 shows between October 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024. This attendance marks a 12% increase from the midterm presentation of the company in 2023, already up 71% from 2022 — a year that saw a 94% increase over 2019 before the pandemic.
CMN's $233 million gross marks the company's first interim tracking period to finish north of the $200 million mark, up 43% from $163 million last year. Its mid-2024 earnings are a significant nearly 4.5 times higher than its pre-pandemic operations. This achievement comes from working both smarter and harder: in essence, presenting more shows by more artists in bigger venues with maximized capacity.
Luis Miguel leads the charge among CMN touring artists. The Mexican music icon finished No. 1 on the Top Latin Tours mid-year rankings, grossing $165.6 million and selling 1.2 million tickets during the tracking period — eclipsing the biggest Latin tour of 2023 ( Karol G) in both measurements in just six months. This marks the biggest income for a Latin artist in Billboard Boxscore interim chart history.
But as demonstrated by Karol G last year and CMN's run with Bad Bunny in 2022, the promoter's reach transcends genre limitations. Midway through the year, Miguel is No. 4 on the all-genre top Tours chart, behind only U2, P!nk and Madonna. It also ranks third in terms of tickets sold. Elsewhere, Marc Anthony is No. 48 on the Top Tours with $23.4 million, while Don Omar and Christian Nodal also earned eight figures with $14.1 million and $11.8 million, respectively.
It is worth noting that CMN is absent from the intermediate chart of top promoters. Having recently entered into a partnership with AEG Presents, the company's totals were converted to those of AEG — which ranked No. 2 with $976.6 million in revenue — for interim chart purposes. AEG's total is up nearly $300 million from last year thanks to the touring giant's own deals and the addition of CMN to its tally. If CMN had been listed individually in Top Advertisers, it would have been ranked in the top five.
While the interim viewing period closed on March 31, CMN tours continued. Reported revenue from April and March totaled more than $100 million, surpassing the mid-year mark thanks to big assists from the recently launched tours of Aventura and Victor Manuelle.
CMN's would-be five-track mid-year placement as the company has spent the last three years in the upper region of the year-end Top Promoters chart — the culmination of a steady climb since its inception in 2001. CMN has shot in and off the charts throughout the 2000s before rising from No. 15 in 2018 to No. 10 in 2019 to No. 7 in 2020. It ranked at either No. 3 or No. 4 in 2021, the 2022 and 2023.
