Chris Rock's show sales skyrocket after Will Smith SLAPGATE incident at Oscars 2022
The sale of tickets for Chris Rock's comedy show has skyrocketed hours after he was slapped by actor Will Smith on stage in front of millions of viewers at the 94th Academy Awards. On Monday, 28 March, ticket-selling site TickPick tweeted, "We sold more tickets to see Chris Rock overnight than we did in the past month combined", confirming the drastic increase in sales for the comedian's show.
Rock cracked a joke while presenting the award for Best Documentary on Sunday, that Will Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, should star in 'G.I. Jane 2' because of her shaved head. Pinkett Smith suffers from alopecia, a hair loss condition, and the joke appeared to anger her husband, who then stormed the stage and slapped Rock. Viewers were shocked to see the on-stage assault on the comedian. In fact, social media has been hailing Rock for the way he handled the situation, as a result of which, the comedian's sales increased multiple folds.
READ MORE
Will Smith could be STRIPPED of his first-ever Oscar after assaulting Chris Rock, as backlash grows
We sold more tickets to see Chris Rock overnight than we did in the past month combined.
— TickPick (@TickPick) March 28, 2022
According to numerous ticketing sites, tickets for Chris Rock's upcoming shows- 6 gigs from March 30 through 1 April, 2022 at Wilbur Theater, Boston increased drastically after Smith assaulted the comedian on stage at Oscars 2022. Not only sales, but the prices of tickets have also increased; according to a report by Variety, tickets went up from a minimum of $46 per person on March 18 to a minimum of $341.
Another report by the publication, Newsweek says that the price of tickets per person went up from $338 on Monday morning, up to $450 within an hour. Although the sales for the gigs have been going quite well, the Oscar award incident followed by the outrage online did give it a big boost.
After these gigs, the comedian will embark on his 'Ego Death World Tour' from April 2 onwards. Rock had announced his comedy show tour, 'Ego Death World Tour' over Instagram on February 23, 2022, promising all-new material and an introspective program that would be very personal and very funny.
Meanwhile, after numerous trolls online, actor Will Smith has now apologized publicly to Rock, writing in an Instagram post that he was out of line and wrong to have slapped the comedian. The actor was heavily criticized online for apologizing to the Academy, and not to Rock, during his acceptance speech for his performance in 'King Richard' minutes after the incident. Not only Smith, but Hollywood personalities gathered at Dolby Theater were also criticized for giving Smith a standing ovation for his Oscar win. Now, it seems like Smith's apology is cooling down the heat a bit.