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.
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 tickets sky-high. So high, in fact, that Swift made a surprise announcement at her Wednesday premiere 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 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.
“We had to rearrange our plans,” said 24-year-old Bailey Fitzgibbon, who was originally slated for a Friday-night screening. (“Our showtime tomorrow was supposed to be 10.30pm, so this is actually better for our sleep schedule,” added her friend Holly Dannen, also 24; two lucky ticketless friends scored the later slot.) For some, the premiere night was a bonus – “We just didn’t have plans and were like, why not?” said Lucy Bryan, 22, who was also booked for a Friday-night showing. “Any time any of my friends ask me if I want to go, I’ll go. It’s the Eras Tour. I’d watch it every night.”
For others, the new premiere date bypassed potential days of waiting for an open screening. A 23-year-old named Anna had seen the live show in Philadelphia, her friend Caroline just on TikTok “several times” over; neither could get a Friday ticket, nor saw a limit to Swift’s saturation of the cultural consciousness. “I feel like she’ll take a little break soon, but I’m not getting tired of it,” said Caroline.
The film, like the show it captures, is a feat of stamina – Swift performing with seemingly little fatigue for three and a half hours, condensed to a still grueling (and gloriously loud) two hours and 45 minutes. (Swift’s prolific stan accounts were quick to note that – spoiler alert – the film cuts seven songs from the LA set list.) And several fans were in for repeat performances, looking to the film to supply the details erased by adrenaline during the live show. “I feel like I kind of blacked out the whole time while I was actually there, because I was just so excited,” said Dannen, who attended one of Swift’s three shows at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. “I’m excited to relive it in a less stressful environment.”
In anticipation of a very enthusiastic crowd seeking either to relive or experience a massive concert, theaters have relaxed their rules around talking, standing and phone use for The Eras Tour. That proved to be largely irrelevant to my screening – people sang along throughout, bopped to the pyrotechnics of Reputation, even shouted such choice lyrics as Champagne Problems’ “What a shame she’s fucked in the head.” But nothing was ever close to as loud as screen Swift herself, nor the SoFi Stadium crowd occasionally allowed to drown the theater in deafening cheers for minutes at a time.
Which was a win for those unable to attend a live show, theoretically the target audience of the film. “This was like my version of going,” said Katie Mae, a 22-year-old recent college graduate who could not afford to score a tour seat, which cost upwards of $200. (Or, if you’re a Massachusetts father going last-minute, $21,000.) “I wish money didn’t exist so I could’ve just gone [to the show],” said Lainey McKinnon, also 22. (Swift “speaks to the 22-year-olds”, she joked.) The film, as she saw it, was a gift to fans. “I’m so happy that she did that. I feel like I didn’t miss out that much. I feel like I got to experience it, at least with like-minded people.”
The crowd, to be sure, appeared to know almost every word to the film’s ludicrously ambitious, if still slimmed down, set list; my spotty knowledge of the relatively sleepy pandemic albums, Folklore and Evermore, was the weak link. The audience volume ebbed and flowed, at most achieving a moderate hum below the film’s stadium echo. But by the time Swift reached Karma, the capstone track to her show, people took to the aisles to dance; one younger fan apologetically scampered over me to claim her space. The celebration lingered into the credits, set to the 2010 track Long Live, a fan-favorite, classically underdog-styled ode to Swift’s long-running relationship with her team, broadly construed.
“I think she is just the most unstoppable person out there,” said Fitzgibbon before the screening. “I don’t think there will ever be a limit to her. Every time I think there is, she surpasses it.”
