Chris Rock has yet to publicly address being slapped by Will Smith during the 94th annual Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday. Fans are banking on the chance that could change Wednesday night.
Rock is set to perform two back-to-back shows at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, and the anticipation has sent second-market ticket sales soaring, according to social media posts and resell websites.
StubHub, a ticket exchange and resale company, said it saw 25x the daily sales for Rock’s shows in the days following the Oscar incident, exceeding cumulative sales for the comedian’s tour during the entire month of March.
“At this stage in his tour, on an average day, we’d expect to see a spike in sales in the 24 or 48 hours prior to a show date as last-minute sales roll in – but it is incredibly unusual to see the spike we have experienced,” Mike Silveira, a spokesperson for StubHub said in a statement to CNBC.
The jump in sales was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
There are more than a dozen tickets to Rock’s Wednesday shows up for sale on StubHub, with prices ranging from $444 per ticket to $1,705. To be sure, those are just asking prices — it’s unclear if anyone will purchase seats at those levels.
Users reported on social media that ticket prices soared from as low as $40 from before the incident to the triple-digit price tags after the altercation.
Ticket marketplace TickPick said Monday it sold more tickets to see Rock overnight after the slap than it did in the past month combined.
TickPick has three tickets currently available for the 7:30 show and four up for sale for the 10:00 show. Prices range from $800 to $1,100 each.
Ticketmaster’s website says both the 7:30 pm and 10:00 pm shows are sold out. Meanwhile, Vivid Seats currently has four tickets for the 10:00 pm show, with two listed for $768 and two listed for $966.
