Why Lady Gaga will earn $100 Million in 2011

Whether it’s showing up to an awards ceremony clad entirely in raw meat or nearly suffering a deep-vein thrombosis while wearing a dress made of caution tape on an airplane, Lady Gaga has a knack for making headlines.

She also has a talent for moneymaking. Gaga raked in $64 million last year by our estimate, making her the seventh highest-paid musician in the world, just $1 million behind sixth-ranked Jay-Z. Only U2 ($130 million) and AC/DC ($114 million) crested the $100 million earnings mark.

It’s quite likely that the financially shrewd Gaga will join the elite group by topping $100 million in 2011 — here’s why.

First of all, there’s touring, which should provide the largest chunk of Gaga’s earnings this year. In 2010, her 138-show Monster’s Ball tour grossed $133 million, second to only Bon Jovi on the list of year’s most lucrative tours. Gaga already commands a higher average ticket price ($102) than her New Jersey counterpart ($92), but she’s been playing to crowds of 14,000 on average (compared to Bon Jovi’s 33,000).

Over the next six months, Gaga is scheduled to play 41 shows at 20,000-seat venues like Madison Square Garden in New York and the Staples Center in Los Angeles. If she maintains her average ticket price, that works out to $2 million gross per show, of which she’d likely keep about $800,000 a night after concert promoter fees, security, and other costs. Multiply that by 41 and you get roughly $33 million...