March 2020 | Rolling Stone | 29
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OCKstill owns 15 percent of Elvis Presley
Enterprises. (She is currently in the
midst of a lawsuit with her former
business manager, claiming he squan-
dered her $100 million inheritance
and left her with only $14,000.) Pris-
cilla, too, remains aboard as a con-
sultant, appearing at important Pres-
ley events. When the new team came
in, the day-to-day management of
Graceland went to Joel Weinshanker,
a former rock manager who moved on
to the profitable collectible and mem-
orabilia world. Taking over what, he
says, the previous owners deemed a
“declining asset,” Weinshanker turned
Graceland into an Elvis theme park,
complete with museums, restaurants,
and a theater. He also built the Guest
House, a four-star luxury hotel that
opened nearby in 2015. Today, Wein-
shanker says, Graceland remains the
most profitable part of the Presley
business.
Yet, as previous estate owners have
learned, modernizing Elvis can in-
volve a certain amount of heartbreak.
In 2005, the jukebox musical All Shook
Up closed on Broadway after only six
months. A few years later, Cirque Du
Soleil mounted a Las Vegas show, Viva
Elvis, featuring Presley footage accom-
panied by dancers. But attendance was
disappointing, and the show closed
after just more than two years.
At the ABG offices, Matt Abruzzo,
who oversees the licensing of Presley
products, flips open a brochure with
Presley stats that the company has
compiled. Some are surprising: After
the U.S., his second-biggest market
is Brazil? But another chart leaps out
as well: The bulk of his fan base is 35
and older, with only 11 percent below
the age of 34. Those 17 and under only
account for 1.6 percent. “That genera-
tion is harder,” concedes Salter.
That statistic lies at the heart of the
issue facing the future of classic-rock
revenue. The industry still has mone-
tary legs — over the past decade, the
combined road earnings of the Rolling
Stones, U2, Bruce Springsteen, and
Elton John were $3.4 billion. There are
still hundreds of classic-rock radio sta-
tions, even if they attract smaller num-
bers than country, Top 40, and adult
contemporary. But the future looks
daunting, especially with many clas-
sic-rock acts retiring from the road and
CD sales slowing every month. “It’s
weird,” says the manager of one classic-
rock act. “Will the assets depreciate
in value? Will there be a resurgence?
What do you do?”
With Presley, the solution is to go
younger. The approach applies not
only to Agent King but also to an un-
titled Presley biopic to be directed by
Baz Luhrmann. Set to start filming inHOW ELVIS MAKES MONEY
Though Elvis Presley has been dead for more than 40 years, his
business machine never stopped. After a period of serious decline,
his estate is doing all it can to keep the King relevant in the 21st
century. Here’s what his team is tackling.Australia soon, the project stars Aus-
tin Butler, known for playing Manson
acolyte Tex Watson in Once Upon a
Time... in Hollywood; Tom Hanks will
play Parker. “Baz doesn’t do a movie
like Walk the Line,” says Weinshanker.
“It’s very, very different. It’s not a lin-
ear, week-by-week biopic. It deals with
a lot of perspective and emotion.”
Elvis’ team is also making head-
way in the streaming world. Helped
by the use of “Can’t Help Falling in
Love” in Crazy Rich Asians, his songs
were streamed a respectable 544 mil-
lion times last year, ranking him in the
top 200 most-streamed artists of 2019
— well behind everyone from Drake to
Michael Jackson, but ahead of Creed-
ence Clearwater Revival and Guns N’
Roses. To appeal to Gen Z, ABG is inter-
ested in commissioning more dance re-
mixes like Junkie XL’s 2002 hit version
of “A Little Less Conversation.” “We feel
strongly that will help us with that gen-
eration,” says Salter. “They’re not grow-
ing up with rock.”
The estate is also considering subtler
strategies. There’s talk of downplaying
Elvis’ age during birthday celebrations
(his 85th happened in January, with
tickets as high as $875, which included
a Graceland tour guided by Priscilla).
“When we get to his centennial, that’ll
feel like he’s old,” says John Jackson,
the Sony Music VP who oversees Pres-
ley’s back catalog. “How much more
emphasis do you want to put on that?”
As part of the plan, you’re more likely
to see photos of the younger Elvis, not
the jumpsuit-era King.
Team Elvis is also planning to de-em-
phasize Presley’s connection to rock.
“He’s the guy who was 18 and straight
out of a not-great high school, trying to
make something of himself,” says Jack-
son. “That’s all that Drake and Justin
Bieber wanted. You don’t present him
as a rocker. You present him as this
iconic American story.”
It’s an ambitious plan, but it leaves
some observers skeptical. “If you’re
going to try to be as important as Billie
Eilish or Post Malone, you’re fighting a
fool’s errand,” says an executive in the
classic-rock field. “The idea of trying
to get the younger audience involved
makes no sense to me. An Elvis car-
toon? I don’t know the point of that.”
In an office at Sony, Jackson is at
work on a box set documenting the
50th anniversary of three intense days
of 1970 Presley sessions, and he’s also
in the midst of supplying master tapes
for Luhrmann’s biopic. “There’s been
no more beautiful of a human being
than that, right there,” he says, point-
ing to a box set with a photo of peak
Fifties Presley on its cover. “It needs to
remind people that, ‘Look, that guy ex-
isted once.’ ”MEMORABILIA
Since 2017, sales of Elvis collectibles at
auction houses have fallen by more than 30
percent, according to Invaluable (their chart
below). But there’s still hope. At an auction at
Graceland in January, an alpaca vest Presley
gifted a DJ in the Fifties went for $42,500.STREAMING
Last year, Presley earned 544 million streams. The most-streamed
song? “Blue Christmas,” with 66 million. “Can’t Help Falling in Love”
is not far behind. Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, and Biggie are
streamed more; Whitney Houston and Bob Marley rank lower.RECORD SALES
Presley isn’t moving as much
physical product as he once did, but
the new releases keep coming. The
11-disc box set Live 1969 — featuring
complete performances from his
Vegas comeback — is the latest.
It moved only a few thousand units.
(By comparison, Bob Dylan’s Rolling
Thunder Revue box sold 40,000.)LICENSING DEALS
At one point, the Elvis
estate had product deals
with hundreds of companies.
When Authentic Brands
Group took over the business
in 2013, it cut down on
tchotchkes and made deals
including a $100 Dolce &
Gabbana T-shirt, a $9,800
Andy Warhol surfboard,
a baby book, and Elvis
Juice craft beer.GRACELAND
The most lucrative part
of Presley’s business
draws about 600,000
fans annually, a 14
percent dip from a
decade ago. Tickets
range from $42.50 to
$180. They recently
opened a hotel nearby.0$1$2$3$4‘09 ‘10 ‘11 ‘12 ‘13 ‘14 ‘15 ‘16 ‘17 ‘18 ‘19IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS