Taylor Swift must be accustomed by now to setting records on the Billboard charts. That never gets to be old hat – ask any artist – but she needs new worlds to conquer. And with the release of Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film on Oct. 13, we can see how she does on the film box office charts. If The Eras Tour film grosses more than $73 million, it will become the top-grossing contemporary music concert film of all time, according to boxofficemojo.com.
Swift’s film will be available in AMC theaters in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, as well as certain other movie operators that AMC is working with in those three countries. AMC will offer the film in IMAX and Dolby Cinema as well as standard screenings, with fees varying by format and theatre.
Every U.S. AMC Theatre location will screen the movie at least four times each day on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays during its run. Tickets are already on sale. Read on for more information on how to get tickets here.
The Eras Tour film was shot over the course of Swift’s first three shows at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., where she performed a total of six shows in early August. An average Eras Tour concert runs for more than three hours, but the concert film has an official runtime of 2 hours, 45 mins. It’s unclear what parts of Swift’s show her team excised or trimmed to get the movie down to a shorter length.
The Eras Tour film was directed by Sam Wrench, who received a Grammy nomination late last year for directing Billie Eilish Live at the O2, which was a contender for best music film. Wrench has also worked on projects by BTS, Lizzo, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, The Weeknd and Mary J. Blige.
This list counts only domestic box-office receipts, which explains the absence of previous Swift projects such as the Netflix documentary Miss Americana (2020).
Here are the 10 highest-grossing contemporary music concert films, according to boxofficemojo.com. (Movie buffs should check out our lists of the top 10 box-office hits of 2023 and the 30 highest-grossing films directed or co-directed by women. Spoiler alert: Barbie heads both lists. We also posted a list of the highest-grossing R-rated movies. No Barbie on that one.)
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U2: Rattle and Hum
Release Date: Nov. 4, 1988
Domestic Gross: $8.6 million
Director: Phil Joanou
Running Time: 1:39
Notes: This was a documentary (rockumentary was the buzz word at the time) of the band’s The Joshua Tree tour of 1987. A Jimmy Iovine-produced, double-disk soundtrack which accompanied this film topped the Billboard 200 for six consecutive weeks in November/December 1988. U2: Rattle and Hum was the highest-grossing contemporary music film of the 1980s, ahead of The Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense and Prince’s Sign ‘O’ the Times.
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U2, U2 3D
Release Date: Jan. 23, 2008
Domestic Gross: $10.4 million
Director: Catherine Owens, Mark Pellington
Running Time: 1:25
Notes: U2 3D was the first live-action digital 3D film. This captured the band’s Vertigo Tour of 2005-06. Although set in Buenos Aires, U2 3D was shot at seven concerts across Latin America, and two in Australia. The complex setup involved shooting with up to 18 3D cameras simultaneously and capturing the footage digitally. The film contains performances of 14 songs, including tracks from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004), the Grammy-winner for album of the year that the tour supported.
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Glee: The 3D Concert Movie
Release Date: Aug. 12, 2011
Domestic Gross: $11.9 million
Director: Kevin Tancharoen
Running Time: 1:24
Notes: This concert doc was shot during the Glee Live! In Concert! Tour stop in East Rutherford, N.J. Would fans pay to see Lea Michele, Chris Colfer, Cory Monteith, Dianna Agron and other Glee favorites when they could see them for free every week on TV? More than a few did. In addition to behind-the-scenes footage, the film portrays the series’ influence on teenagers, including a gay kid, one with Asperger syndrome and a cheerleader of short stature. The fan segments were created by documentary filmmaker Jennifer Arnold.
The accompanying soundtrack album, Glee: The 3D Concert Movie, didn’t do that well. It reached No. 16 on the Billboard 200, becoming the first Glee title to fall short of the top 10 on that chart.
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Madonna: Truth or Dare
Release Date: May 10, 1991
Domestic Gross: $15 million
Director: Alek Keshishian
Running Time: 2:00
Notes: The doc followed Madonna on her Blond Ambition world tour of 1990. The movie’s tag line: “The ultimate dare is to tell the truth.” Madonna: Truth or Dare was known as In Bed With Madonna internationally. The film was initially intended to be a traditional concert film, but director Keshishian was so impressed with Madonna’s backstage life that he persuaded the star to make it the focus of the film. The film was edited to be in black-and-white, in order to emulate cinéma vérité, while the performance scenes are in color.
Madonna was nominated for a Razzie Award for worst actress for this film. The Razzies deserve a razzie for that really dumb move: This was a great music doc.
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Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience
Release Date: Feb. 27, 2009
Domestic Gross: $19. 1 million
Director: Bruce Hendricks
Running Time: 1:16
Notes: Ah, youth. Nick Jonas was just 16 when this film came out. Joe was 19; Kevin was 21. This 3D concert film captured their 2008-09 The Burning Up concert tour. An accompanying album, Music From the 3D Concert Experience, was released three days before the film and entered the Billboard 200 at No. 3.
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Katy Perry: Part of Me
Release Date: July 5, 2012
Domestic Gross: $25.3 million
Director: Dan Cutforth, Jane Lipsitz
Running Time: 1:33
Notes: This film followed Perry on her 2011-12 California Dreams world tour. The film was released less than a year after Perry’s Teenage Dream tied Michael Jackson’s Bad record for the most No. 1 singles from an album. (Never fear: He’s coming up on this list.) Part of Me took its title from the title of a then-recent Perry smash, which entered the Hot 100 at No. 1 on March 3, 2012. The film follows Perry through her tour, while providing insight into her relationship with stardom.
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One Direction: This Is Us
Release Date: Aug. 30, 2013
Domestic Gross: $28.9 million
Director: Morgan Spurlock
Running Time: 1:32
Notes: This is the highest-grossing contemporary music concert film by a group. 1D released this film in between their albums Take Me Home and Midnight Memories, both of which entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1. Billed as an intimate, all-access look at life on the road for the global pop stars, This Is Us contains live concert footage from their Take Me Home Tour stop at London’s O2 Arena, and footage from their lives both pre- and post-X Factor.
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Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert
Release Date: Feb. 1, 2008
Domestic Gross: $65.3 million
Director: Bruce Hendricks
Running Time: 1:14
Notes: Cyrus was just 15 when this film was released, yet it became the highest-grossing contemporary music concert film ever by a female artist. (For the time being.) The film features Miley’s dad Billy Ray Cyrus and special guests Jonas Brothers. An album, Best of Both Worlds Concert, was released the following month (on March 11), and reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 dated May 3, 2008. The film premiered on Disney Channel on July 26, 2008, reaching 5.9 million viewers.
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Michael Jackson’s This Is It
Release Date: Oct. 28, 2009
Domestic Gross: $72.1 million
Director: Kenny Ortega
Running Time: 1:51
Notes: “Like you’ve never seen him before” was the tagline for this film, which was released just four months after Jackson’s shocking death on June 25, 2009. It’s a compilation of interviews, dancer auditions, rehearsals and backstage footage as Jackson prepared for his 50-show run at the 02 Arena in London (which was set to kick off on July 13.) There was a heated debate at the time about whether Jackson, who was famously a perfectionist, would have wanted this rehearsal footage to be released. Here he was, working toward a goal – but he wasn’t there yet. However, many thought seeing the work process here humanized him. Turns out achieving perfection is bloody hard work. A double-disk soundtrack from the film entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1.
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Justin Bieber: Never Say Never
Release Date: Feb. 11, 2011
Domestic Gross: $73 million
Director: Jon M. Chu
Running time: 1:45
Notes: “Find out what’s possible if you never give up” was the inspiring tagline for this film, which followed the then-16-year-old pop star on his 2010 concert tour. The film, which also featured Boyz II Men, Miley Cyrus and Sean Kingston, is the first (and only) film from MTV Films to receive a G-rating. An EP, Never Say Never: The Remixes, was released three days after the film. It entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1. A sequel, Justin Bieber’s Believe, was released on Dec. 25, 2013, but it grossed just $6.2 million domestically.
