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, 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.
