For weeks, theater chains in the US have discovered the depth of the public's interest in Taylor Swift: colossal, and seemingly endless. The question dogging Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, the concert film version of her commerce-shifting, career-spanning stadium show her, is not whether it will be record-breaking but by how much.
It's already the most lucrative concert film in US presales, and dropped a money bomb into the October box office calendar; producer Jason Blum moved the premiere of The Exorcist: Believer up a week so as not to compete (“#TaylorWins,” he tweeted).
In terms of raw economic power, Swift stays winning. The film, which the 33-year-old singer produced and financed herself for about $15m, is projected to take in as much as $125m domestically in its opening weekend, plus around $60m overseas – a much-needed bump for theaters in their post-Barbenheimer slump, as the joint actors and writers strikes pushed a number of premieres to 2024. And in bypassing streamers and studios altogether, Swift has forged a cinematic profit lane already reaping results for other artists; Beyoncé's Renaissance tour film, which has a similar direct distribution deal with AMC, has already sold $7m in tickets for its 1 December release.
But in terms of opening wallets, Swift is in a class of her own. First-night screenings have been sold out for weeks, with demand for sky-high tickets. So high, in fact, that Swift made a surprise announcement at her Wednesday premiere of her in LA (which, notably, had Beyoncé in attendance): the film would open on Thursday, one day earlier than planned.
“The Swifties, we 're all here,” said a girl as her friends di lei filled the row in front of me at a Manhattan theater on Thursday evening, Swift-branded fountain drink cups in hand. The 7.30pm showing at the AMC 13 in Lincoln Square – real Swifties will note the number – was about half full, perhaps owing to the fact that tickets, which go for $19.89 (a nod to Swift's fifth album and birth year) are nonrefundable, and that the Thursday screening option was barely 24 hours old. To be there on Thursday either meant doubling up or a fortuitous development for ticket-buying stragglers.