Sphere sells movies and concerts in a way that neither streaming nor traditional theaters can replicate, a unique experience that risked becoming stale. such a Las Vegas extravagancethe place where the space is housed. However, the revenue data for the first quarter of 2026 not only speaks of healthy accounts, but also of the confirmation that live entertainment is mutating irreversibly.
The aforementioned. Sphere Entertainment closed the first quarter of its fiscal 2026 year with $386.4 million in revenue, 38% more than what it earned in the previous twelve months. For the second time, the business of also the owner of Madison Square Garden, James Dolan, closes a positive quarter, with an operating profit of 7.2 million dollars compared to the 78.6 million losses (for the company as a whole) a year ago. The segment managed directly by Sphere almost doubled its turnover, up to 266 million dollars (69% more), driven above all by the controversial screening of ‘The Wizard of Oz’.
Not everything is great news (first and last time we make the joke): the shares have risen 400% in the last year, but They fell by more than 5% on the same day of the announcement, because investors were comparing the quarter with an even better fourth quarter of 2025. The ups and downs of the stock market aside, what this data reflects is that the business is not stable, but depends on the show calendar. That is why he has already announced the residencies of Metallica (24 concerts from October 2026) or Backstreet Boys (56 nights this summer) well in advance.
The magician’s bombshell. In 2025, Google and Sphere announced a collaboration to reconstruct ‘The Wizard of Oz’ from 1939 with artificial intelligence, using Gemini, I Spy and Image models to expand the frame and generate characters that were out of shot in the original film, but that did enter the monstrous screen of the venue. The project cost $100 million, as much as a medium-high budget film, and cut the footage to just over an hour. Between that and the radical visual change, which destroyed the original planning, they intensified the criticism.
However, the reduction in duration allowed more passes to be scheduled per day. Tickets cost at least $104 and easily exceeded $200, depending on the seating in the stands. Result: more than two million tickets sold and $260 million in revenue since its premiere almost a year ago now, in August 2025. Dolan has clearly said that the numbers “demonstrate that Sphere’s business model works.” It is still striking that what comes from this success is a version of a classic film that does not resemble the hitherto untouchable original.
Cinema, down. Meanwhile, the traditional film business continues without raising its head. In Spain, attendance fell by 8% in 2025, to 65 million viewers, the second consecutive year of decline. In the United States tobarely half of the adults set foot in a room throughout the year, with 769 million tickets sold compared to the record of 1.6 billion in 2002. And yet… premium formats are better than ever. IMAX closed 2025 with record revenue of 410 million dollars (+16%) and a global box office of 1,280 million dollars (+40%), with titles such as ‘Sinners’ or ‘F1’ contributing more than 20% of its debut collection in the United States.
The concert industry is not far behind: for example, Live Nation closed 2025 with $25.2 billion in revenue (+9%). And in that part of concerts, Sphere is already among the venues with the most tickets sold on the planet, only behind the South Korean K-Arena Yokohama and the Movistar Arena in Madrid in the third quarter of 2025. The conclusions are clear: the public does not go out in search of generic offers, but rather unrepeatable experiences. Clearly, the ball is in the court of the movie theaters.
The icing on the cake: the exterior. Sphere doesn’t live on tickets alone. Its exterior façade, the Exosphere, is the largest LED screen on the planet and works as an advertising medium which bills between 450,000 dollars for one day and 650,000 for a week of campaigning. Evian, for example, signed a multi-year sponsorship as the venue’s official water supplier in April, and analysts estimate that advertising could exceed 10% of the company’s total revenue in the coming years.
Meanwhile, the spherical business does not stop: while the city of Las Vegas is falling in the number of visits (in 2025 it received 7.5% fewer visitors than the previous yearthe largest annual drop outside of the pandemic and since records exist, since 1970) Sphere Entertainment is already thinking about new venues. The second headquarters is being negotiated in National Harbor, in the state of Maryland but also very close to Washington DC Of course, we will have to wait: its opening is not scheduled until 2030.
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