Lady Gaga is set to kick off a residency in Las Vegas at the MGM Park Theater. The deal closed over the weekend and will bring the pop star to the city starting in late 2018. 
 
 According to a source, Gaga will perform 74 dates with the possibility of a longer run. The deal is said to be potentially valued at nearly $100 million, with the pop star clearing a million-plus dollars per show to lock in $75 million over two years. Comparatively, Britney Spears’ two-year re-up at Planet Hollywood was in the range of $30 million. That show, “Piece of Me,” has grossed more than $135 million since Dec. 2013. 
 
 Gaga’s last touring run, of 37 shows, saw an average box office gross of $2.5 million, according to concert industry trade Pollstar. 
 
 The deal was negotiated by CAA’s Christian Carino and attorney Kenny Meiselas of Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks with Sonya Guardo. 
 
 Additional headliners at the MGM’s 5,200-seat Park Theater include Bruno Mars and Cher, both of whom are scheduled for multiple shows at the top of the year. 
 
 An announcement of the residency was posted on Gaga’s social media channels, along with photos of the deal being signed and a toast with Bill Hornbuckle, president of MGM Resorts International (bottom left), as well as with Chris Baldizan SVP of entertainment booking and development MGM Resorts and Richard Sturm, president and COO of sports and entertainment (top right). ||||| The Lady Gaga residency is upon us. Or, rather, it will be in late 2018. 
 
 Lady Gaga to open residency at The Park Theater in late-2018 (John Katsilometes/Las Vegas Review-Journal) 
 
 Lady Gaga performs during her "Joanne" world tour at Rogers Arena on Aug. 1 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Live Nation) 
 
 Lady Gaga performs during her "Joanne" world tour at Rogers Arena on Aug. 1 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Live Nation) 
 
 Lady Gaga attends a news conference for "Gaga: Five Foot Two" on Day 2 of the Toronto International Film Festival at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on Friday, Sept. 8, 2017, in Toronto. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP) 
 
 The Lady Gaga residency is upon us. 
 
 Or, rather, it will be in late 2018. 
 
 Rumored for about a year and a half, Gaga is set to announce a series of 36 shows at The Park Theater at Monte Carlo. Those familiar with the terms of her agreement say the run launches in the fourth quarter of next year, running for one year, through 2019 and might extend into 2020. 
 
 Gaga is to earn approximately $400,000 per performance. A source familiar with her contract says online reports of her signing a deal worth $100 million for 60 shows are “way, way, way, off.” 
 
 Gaga is currently cast as Ally, opposite Bradley Cooper’s Jackson Maine, in the remake of “A Star is Born.” The film’s premiere has been moved up from September 28 to May 18 (she tweeted Tuesday that despite online reports, she is using her stage name and not her born name, Stefani Germanotta, in the film’s credits). The adjusted time line allows the stage and recording superstar time to assemble and rehearse her production show. 
 
 The Park Theater opened last December with The Pretenders and Stevie Nicks. Cher, Bruno Mars and Ricky Martin are among the resident headliners in the venue, which can seat up to 6,300. 
 
 Gaga played T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night, and also played the venue in August. A “pop-up” show on her “Bud Lite Dive Bar Tour” she had planned in Downtown Las Vegas days before the T-Mobile show was canceled (she stated she needed to rehearse for her world tour instead). 
 
 Gaga was also forced to call off her six-week European leg of her “Joanne World Tour” in September, but has been in peak form since returning from her health struggles. 
 
 Gaga was in the audience Friday night at Lionel Richie’s show at Axis theater at Planet Hollywood and has frequently teased about a series of shows in Las Vegas. 
 
 “I’m excited someday to do that,” she told Mix 94.1-FM morning show hosts Mercedes Martinez and JC Fernandez in January, days before her Super Bowl LI halftime show performance. “I love Las Vegas and the people there, and I love show business. I’m a real old-fashioned girl.” 
 
 Contact John Katsilometes at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram. ||||| The $30 million Planet Hollywood deal highlights the city's declining tourist age and a business model that eliminates the most expensive part of touring. 
 
 In the live music sphere, Las Vegas long was known as the place where acts went to die. From Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley on down, stars big and small spent their twilight years entertaining tourists on the Strip, a tradition that continued into the 2000s. 
 
 Credit Celine Dion for turning the tide. Her A New Day show at the 4,000-seat Colosseum at Caesars Palace, which debuted in 2003, was the first to freshen up the residency from schmaltzy lounge act to theatrical extravaganza complete with smoke, fire and brimstone -- a model emulated by Elton John for his The Red Piano, which ran from 2004 through 2009, and The Million Dollar Piano, launched in 2011. Now Britney Spears' Piece of Me residency at Planet Hollywood kicks off Dec. 27. 
 
 PHOTOS: Viva Residencies: 19 Music Superstars Who Rocked Las Vegas 
 
 Spears' arrival comes as the median age of the city's tourist demographic is dropping -- from 49 to 45 in the past four years -- thanks in large part to the EDM (electronic dance music) scene that has made Vegas its primary home. Such superstar DJs as Tiesto and Deadmau5 have settled into new state-of-the-art nightclubs like MGM's Hakkasan for their own residencies (the acts earn reported fees of up to $300,000 a night while clubs generate some $1.5 million in nightly drink sales) and will be competing with pop acts for tourist dollars. "It takes a pretty big shift in younger customers to move that age average down," says Caesars vp entertainment Kurt Melien, who negotiated Spears' exclusive deal with PH (Spears is managed by Larry Rudolph and Adam Leber and represented by CAA). "We recognize those trends. They had a lot to do with us wanting a younger-skewing contemporary artist as a resident." 
 
 Spears will be raking in north of $30 million for her two-year stay, during which she's obligated to perform 50 shows a year (Dion's tally over five years and 700 shows is $400 million in box-office receipts; Spears' last North American tour grossed $38.3 million), and will get a percentage of ancillary businesses like merchandise. Planet Hollywood is using 117,000 square-feet of space to build a 4,600-seat theater designed to feel like a club -- complete with bottle service and dance floor -- and within moments of unveiling the exclusive run had plastered the pop star's face all over town. 
 
 STORY: Britney Spears Announces Two-Year Vegas Show, 'Gives Props' to Miley Cyrus 
 
 The all-out advertising assault -- tops of taxi cabs, billboards, jumbotrons on the Las Vegas Strip -- is a perk of being the new act in town (just ask Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, who recently extended their Soul2Soul stint at the Venetian), and, all told, can add up to tens of millions of promotional dollars spent, but settling down for a Sin City stretch has a more tangible purpose behind it: stability. 
 
 "It’s no secret that bands are no longer sitting on their couches collecting royalty checks," says Bobby Reynolds, vp booking at AEG Live, Las Vegas. Speaking of Motley Crue's first residency at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino that began in February 2012, he explains: "They played to their fans in an intimate room and sold over 36,000 tickets in 12 shows." 
 
 Indeed, the main advantage to a residency is the cost. "The biggest line item on a tour is trucking and transportation," which includes fuel and labor, says Johnny Wright, manager for Justin Timberlake and the Jonas Brothers. 
 
 With the money saved, the artist can invest in their Vegas show. "You can do bigger things by not having to tear it down every night, drive 300 miles and build it back up," says Crue frontman Vince Neil. The band is now on its second stint at the Hard Rock. "On the last run, it was basically a circus -- we had little people, flying people … a cast of, like, 50 performers. You can't take that many people around. It's not cost effective." 
 
 PHOTOS: iHeartRadio Fest: Justin Timberlake, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry Soar 
 
 On the other hand, the singer adds: “It’s really not as profitable because we put so much money into making this thing so big. This is Vegas and you want people to talk about it, so after the first show, we watch the tapes back and go, ‘It needs more fire here, we need more of that here…’ Which, every time you say ‘we need’ -- dollar signs.” 
 
 Still, another plus to staying put in Vegas: The world comes to you. As Neil explains: "Every night, I ask the audience, 'Who's from out of town?' And 99 percent of the people raise their hands." 
 
 For Spears, who's circled the globe multiple times, "The idea was to create this epicenter for her fans to travel to," says Melien. 
 
 So far, ticket sales for Piece of Me have been swift, with $500 VIP packages selling out (a meet-and-greet with Spears will run fans around $2,500). It all bodes well for "another evolution of Vegas," Caesars' Melien adds of the city's plan to attract more music stars. (Worth noting: Those hoping for a state income-tax break would have to establish permanent residence in Nevada; Doing so would save Spears, who lives in California, at least $3 million, according to one CPA's estimate.) 
 
 Key to the destination concert, however, is having the repertoire for a 90-minute show. Some surmise that R&B singer Toni Braxton didn't when her two-year contract with the Flamingo was canceled in 2008. In Spears' case, 21 hits along with songs from her new album, due out Dec. 3, will function as a musical "retrospective of iconic moments of her life." Albeit, a sanitized version, lest we forget Spears married a high-school pal at a drive-through chapel just three miles down the road from Planet Hollywood in 2004 (50 hours later, the union was annulled). Then again, where else can you distort reality if not Vegas? 
 
 Seth Abramovitch contributed to this report. 
 
 Q&A: Caesars Entertainment Executive on Britney Spears' Two-Year Vegas Residency 
 
 10 PRICES OF LAS VEGAS HEADLINERS: A sampling of ticket costs for the best seats in the house 
 
 MEATLOAF Planet Hollywood 
 
 $866 (VIP) 
 
 TIM MCGRAW & FAITH HILL Venetian 
 
 $692 
 
 SANTANA House of Blues Mandalay Bay 
 
 $375 
 
 ELTON JOHN Caesars Palace 
 
 $250 
 
 CELINE DION Caesars 
 
 $250 
 
 ROD STEWART Caesars 
 
 $250 
 
 DONNY AND MARIE OSMOND The Flamingo 
 
 $152 
 
 MOTLEY CRUE The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino 
 
 $125 
 
 BOYZ II MEN The Mirage 
 
 $60 
 
 CALVIN HARRIS Hakkasan 
 
 $40/$20 (male/female)
– Lady Gaga is following in the footsteps of Britney Spears, Celine Dion, and Cher. The singer is the latest to secure a Las Vegas residency, and will be belting out tunes at the 5,200-seat MGM Park Theater at the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino beginning in late 2018. She'll be making a ton of money, but exactly how much is unclear. A source tells Variety Gaga will take home more than $1 million for each of at least 74 performances over two years, but the Las Vegas Review-Journal has her doing 36 shows for $400,000 apiece. "It's been my lifelong dream to be a Las Vegas girl, I'm so overjoyed!," the singer tweeted Tuesday.