Pit5 Music News Cache

By Ray Waddell Sun Sep 9, 11:08 PM ET

NASHVILLE (Billboard) - Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are in the record books as a touring duo.

The second year of the McGraw/Hill Soul2Soul tour grossed more than $52 million, taking the two-summer total for the husband-and-wife co-headliners to more than $141 million, according to Billboard Boxscore. That's enough to make it the top-grossing country tour ever.

The outing wrapped August 10-11 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

Soul2Soul II now tops Garth Brooks' three-year megatour in support of his 1998 Capitol release "Sevens," which grossed more than $105 million. Brooks had been the box-office standard-bearer in the genre, with country's first and until now only $100 million run.

McGraw/Hill drew 1,673,667 fans to 117 shows. The first Soul2Soul tour in 2000 grossed $50 million. McGraw and Hill first generated sparks on the Spontaneous Combustion tour in 1996.

The previous two-year gross record had been Shania Twain in 2003-04 at about $90 million. Kenny Chesney has grossed about $300 million during the past six years, but each year the set is struck and the next year's run has its own tour identity, title and production. Like Twain's, the McGraw/Hill trek used the same basic (mega) production, title and theme for its entire run, making it one "tour" per se.

Despite the big box office country is seeing these days, Brooks still holds the attendance record for a multiyear run at about 5.5 million.

"Garth definitely wins on attendance," said Scott Siman, McGraw's manager at Front Line Management. "Of course, back then you could sell 10 million records, too."

Reuters/Billboard