The Eras Tour
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Movie theaters turned into concert venues this weekend as Swifties brought their dance moves and friendship bracelets to multiplexes across the country. The unparalleled enthusiasm helped propel Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour to a massive, first place debut between $95 million and $97 million in North America, AMC Theatres said Sunday (Oct. 15).
It’s easily the biggest opening for a concert film of all time, and, not accounting for inflation, has made more than the $73 million Justin Bieber: Never Say Never earned in 2011. In today’s dollars, that would be around $102 million. And if it comes in on the higher end of projections when totals are released Monday (Oct. 16), it could be the biggest October opening ever. The one to beat is Joker, which launched to $96.2 million in 2019.
A unique experiment in distribution, premium pricing, star power and loose movie theater etiquette — more dancing and shouting than a Star Wars premiere — have made it an undeniable hit. Compiled from Swift’s summer shows at Southern California’s SoFi Stadium, the film opened in 3,855 North American locations starting with “surprise” Thursday evening previews. Those showtimes helped boost its opening day sum to $39 million — the second biggest ever for October, behind Joker’s $39.3 million.
Internationally, it’s estimated to have earned somewhere between $31 to $33 million, bringing its global total in the range of $126 million to $130 million.
“This is a phenomenal number,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “To have a blockbuster style opening weekend for a concert film is unprecedented.”
Swift, who produced the film, went around the Hollywood studio system to distribute the film, making a deal directly with AMC, the largest exhibition company in the United States. With her 274 million Instagram followers, Swift hardly needed a traditional marketing campaign to get the word out.
Beyoncé made a similar deal with the exhibitor for Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé, which will open on Dec. 1. The two superstars posed together at the premiere of The Eras Tour earlier this week in Los Angeles. It was a needed injection of star power with Hollywood actors over 90 days into a strike that has left most red carpets void of glamorous talent and resulted in several high-profile films being pushed to next year.
The Eras Tour, directed by Sam Wrench, is not just playing on AMC screens either. The company, based in Leawood, Kansas, worked with sub-distribution partners Variance Films, Trafalgar Releasing, Cinepolis and Cineplex to show the film in more than 8,500 movie theatres globally in 100 countries.
The spotlight on Swift has been especially intense lately as a result of her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. The two made separate surprise appearances on Saturday Night Live this weekend and were also photographed holding hands in New York.
It led to some hyperbolic projections going into the weekend, with some analysts predicting that The Eras Tour could make over $125 million. Dergarabedian said it’s common for outsized expectations to be attached to massive brands like Swift. There’s also no precedent for something like The Eras Tour and a celebrity of Swift’s stature.
“The laws of gravity don’t apply to Taylor Swift,” Dergarabedian said.
The film scored well with both critics and audiences, who gave it an A+ CinemaScore, a metric that typically signals a film will continue to do well after its first weekend.
Elizabeth Frank, the executive vice president of worldwide programming and chief content officer for AMC Theatres, said in a statement that they are grateful to Taylor Swift.
“Her spectacular performance delighted fans, who dressed up and danced through the film,” Frank said. “With tremendous recommendations and fans buying tickets to see this concert film several times, we anticipate Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film playing to big audiences for weeks to come.”
The stadium tour, which continues internationally, famously crashed Ticketmaster’s site and re-sale prices became astronomical. Pollstar projects that it will earn some $1.4 billion. The concert film offered fans both better seats and a much more affordable way to see the show for the first or fifth time. Prices are higher than the national average, at $19.89, which references her birth year and 2014 album, and ran closer to $29 a pop for premium large format screens like IMAX. Even so, they are significantly less than seat at one of the stadium shows.
Showtimes are also more limited than a standard Hollywood blockbuster, but AMC is guaranteeing at least four a day on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at all AMC locations in the U.S. Many locations also specified that there are no refunds or exchanges. And fans will have to wait a while for The Eras Tour to be available on streaming — part of the AMC deal was a 13-week exclusive theatrical run.
Michael O’Leary, CEO of the National Association of Theater Owners said in a statement the moment was, “Another landmark weekend for cinemas.”
“This year has been marked by unprecedented experiences for movie lovers in theaters across this nation,” O’Leary continued in a statement. “The ‘Eras Tour’ debut proves, yet again, that fans are eager to share other experiences in a communal way, with theater owners working creatively to build memorable moments in their cinemas.”
O’Leary said that a survey of 6,000 people by his organization and The Cinema Foundation found that 72% want to see more concert films on the big screen.
The Eras Tour accounted for over 70% of the total weekend box office grosses. The Exorcist: Believer placed a very distant second in its second weekend with $11 million, followed by the Paw Patrol movie in third with $7 million. Rounding out the top five was Saw X with $5.7 million and The Creator with $4.3 million.
“This is great news for theaters,” Dergarabedian said. “The Eras Tour wasn’t even on our radar in mid-August. You take this out of the equation and it would have been a totally different weekend.”
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
There’s probably very few people in the world that could leave Taylor Swift starstruck, but you best believe Beyoncé is one of them. Two of the world’s biggest pop stars — and 2023’s hugest touring artists — met up at the premiere of the “Anti-Hero” singer’s Eras Tour film premiere Wednesday (Oct. 11), after which Swift took to Instagram to rave about the 32-time Grammy winner.
“I’m so glad I’ll never know what my life would’ve been like without @beyonce‘s influence,” she wrote, sharing a gif of her and Bey posing in movie theater seats, playfully tossing pop corn at the cameras. “The way she’s taught me and every artist out here to break rules and defy industry norms.”
“Her generosity of spirit,” Swift continued. “Her resilience and versatility. She’s been a guiding light throughout my career and the fact that she showed up tonight was like an actual fairytale. 😇🙏🥹”
Fans in person and online were stunned when Queen Bey appeared at the Los Angeles premiere of Swift’s film, which compiled footage from the “Karma” musician’s three-hour Eras shows at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., earlier this year. The two posed for photos on the red carpet as well as inside the theater, where Swift watched the film surrounded by a handpicked group of superfans.
Before the viewing, she stopped by each Swiftie-filled theater at L.A.’s The Grove theater to give a speech. “I’ve always had fun doing this,” Swift said. “I can’t believe I get to do music as a career. That’s crazy. I’ve always had so much fun doing it. I’ve never had this much fun in my life as I have had on The Eras Tour. It is far and away just the most electric experience of my life.”
The 33-year-old singer-songwriter wrapped up the first legs U.S. and Mexico legs of her bestselling trek in August, and is now taking a short break from touring before she picks back up in November with dates in Argentina and Brazil. Beyoncé also recently tied a bow on her blockbuster Renaissance Tour, playing a finale show in Kansas City on Oct. 1 after five months of shows in Europe and North America.
And while their public appearances together are rare, Swift and Sasha Fierce go way back. Perhaps their most famous crossover was in 2009, when Bey stood up for Swift at the VMAs after Kanye West famously interrupted the “Maroon” singer’s acceptance speech. Since then, they’ve remained in touch and have been guests at each other‘s birthday parties.
Check out Swift’s post singing Beyoncé’s praises below:
Just like The Eras Tour itself, Taylor Swift is making her Eras Tour film all about the fans. At Wednesday’s (Oct. 11) premiere of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour at The Grove in Los Angeles, a host of VIPs were on hand — from Beyoncé (more on her below) to Adam Sandler, Maren Morris and […]
For as much as has been said and written about Taylor Swift in recent years, there’s a chance people have been underestimating the 33-year-old musician’s unique place in the business world.
Swift’s prowess as a recording artist and songwriter is well known. As the most popular artist in the United States across several consumption metrics, she has 11.7 million equivalent album units this year through Sept. 21 — about 70% more than the No. 2 artist, Morgan Wallen, according to Luminate. (EAUs convert streams and track sales into album units.) Swift also has the highest album sales, physical album sales, digital album sales, digital track sales, on-demand audio streams and airplay spins so far in 2023.
But in recent weeks, Swift’s status as super-celebrity became more apparent when she single-handedly brought a legion of young females into the professional football fold. Her attendance at two Kansas City Chiefs games, her undefined relationship with Chiefs player Travis Kelce and frequent pictures of her watching and celebrating from a luxury box above the playing field have done for the NFL what no amount of corporate-led marketing has been able to achieve. TV ratings for the Oct. 1 game between the Chiefs and New York Jets averaged 27 million viewers, the second-highest number for Sunday Night Football this season. More impressively, viewing among girls 12 to 17 was 53% higher than the season’s first three Sunday Night Football broadcasts. Women 18 to 24 were up 24%. Women over 35 were up 34%.
The Taylor Swift Effect created large ripples beyond TV ratings. Sales of Kelce’s Kansas City jersey spiked nearly 400% in the days following the Sept. 24 game Swift attended against the Chicago Bears. Secondary market prices for tickets to the Chiefs’ Oct. 1 game in New Jersey against the New York Jets rose 43%. U.S. Google searches for Travis Kelce jumped more than 14 times from Sept. 23 to Sept. 25 and remain more than three times greater than search traffic before the Sept. 24th game, according to Google Trends. Search traffic for the Kansas City Chiefs rose 13-fold over that three-day span.
That ability to cross over to older generations separates Swift from other Gen Z idols. “She’s the equivalent of a four-quadrant movie,” says Brad Gelfond, a former brand partnership executive at Warner Records. That’s a Hollywood term for a movie with broad appeal that attracts four demographic “quadrants” of an audience: females under 25, males under 25, females over 25 and males over 25. Swift’s place in mainstream pop culture reached a new level in 2022 when demand for tickets to The Eras Tour pre-sale effectively broke Ticketmaster’s platform. That led to a Senate hearing on Jan. 24, during which lawmakers such as 63-year-old Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and 77-year-old Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) quoted her song lyrics, as well as a plethora of proposed Swift-themed legislation that followed.
Few artists have a similarly broad-reaching appeal. One current artist with cross-generational pull is Beyoncé, but even that comparison is limited, says Ash Stahl, CEO of Flighthouse Media, a digital media producer targeting Gen Z. While Beyoncé is pop royalty, Swift is more relatable. “I would never expect to see Beyonce on screen at an NFL game chest bumping the guy next to her,” she says. That kind of appeal is rare in Hollywood, too. “She’s up there with The Rock,” says Gelfond. That would be Dwayne Johnson, the professional wrestler-turned-actor who transformed from reliable box office draw to media mini-mogul. Johnson is co-owner of a film and TV company, Seven Bucks Productions (Skyscraper, Jungle Cruise, Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw), as well as co-owner of the XFL professional football league.
Among Gen Z, Swift has a sway and longevity that surpasses social media stars popular with the demographic. TikTok star Charli D’Amelio comes close, but her popularity was short-lived, says Stahl. Meanwhile, Vine and YouTube star David Dobrik “didn’t keep his hands clean,” his career tarnished following multiple accusations of sexual assault, bullying, professional negligence and cultural insensitivity against him and his collaborators. Being brand-safe is an important factor in keeping and attracting fans.
YouTuber Mr. Beast is popular among young men but lacks a female fan base, adds Stahl. “‘Mr. Beast, hold my beer,’ said Taylor Swift,” jokes Marcie Allen of MAC Consulting, who has decades of experience working with artists and brands. Aside from attracting fans from different generations, what separates Swift from Gen Z’s online stars is her ability to sell out stadiums. While live-streamer Kai Cenat is facing charges of inciting a riot in New York with a PlayStation 5 giveaway gone awry, Swift’s current tour could surpass $1 billion in ticket sales. What’s more, Swift’s tour could generate $4.6 billion in economic impact for local economies, according to research company QuestionPro. Swift versus these other Gen Z celebrities simply isn’t a close comparison.
With unrivaled popularity and cultural cachet, one must wonder what Swift is doing — or could possibly do — between album and tour cycles. “She’s positioned to be the Reese Witherspoon of music,” says Allen. Witherspoon, an actress known for such movies as Legally Blonde and Walk the Line, founded a production company, Hello Sunshine, in 2016, to give females a greater voice in Hollywood. Hello Sunshine’s predecessor, Pacific Standard, produced the film Gone Girl as well as Wild, in which Witherspoon played the starring role. It wasn’t long before the smart money caught on to Witherspoon’s desire to build a female-first media company. Candle Media, backed by investment titan Blackstone and co-founded by two former Disney executives, acquired a stake in Hello Sunshine for $900 million in 2021.
Could Swift follow Witherspoon and Johnson into building a media fortune? A clue comes from growing demand for the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour movie. Set to open Oct. 13, it has advance ticket sales of $100 million a week before debuting in more than 8,500 theaters worldwide and is expected to top the U.S. box office. Swift is a producer of the Sam Wrench-directed film and cut a direct deal with AMC to distribute it.
Swift may be outgrowing the typical ways an artist makes money — touring, recording, writing songs, promoting products and the like. And she has proven to have a clear head for business, perhaps most notably by re-recording her Big Machine-era catalog while withholding synch opportunities for the recordings sold to Ithaca Holdings in 2019 and then to Shamrock Holdings in 2020. The move has earned her tens of millions of dollars, if not more, while padding the release schedule between new albums with fresh batches of songs and creating new moments built off the nostalgia and goodwill she’s built up. It’s all evidence that Swift doesn’t mind taking risks if she’ll reap the rewards and that she has enough brand loyalty to pull off something big. “Taylor is so far past doing a brand partnership deal,” says Allen. “She can build her own brand.”
Taylor Swift‘s The Eras Tour has been attended by several celebrity fans, and now we know Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz was one of them. The singer/songwriter spoke with the Los Angeles Times in a Wednesday (Sept. 6) interview and gushed about his experience at the pop star’s career-spanning concert. “I was floored,” Duritz said […]
Look what she made them do. Taylor Swift’s forthcoming Eras Tour movie is continuing to rock the planet weeks before it hits theaters. On Thursday (Aug. 31), Academy Award-nominated film producer Jason Blum surprised horror fans with a new release date for The Exorcist: Believer — thanks to Swift’s new film. “Look what you made […]
Missed the Eras Tour when it came through your city? Don’t worry, you still have a chance to catch it — but this time, on the big screen. Taylor Swift announced on Aug. 31 that she’d be bringing her massively popular global trek to AMC theaters all across North America, following the conclusion of its […]
David Harbour is a superhero father on and off screen. In an interview with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that was posted Aug. 17, the Stranger Things star revealed he got some major Dad points by taking his stepdaughter to see Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour in Minnesota, where the pop star went the extra mile by sending the pair a sweet handwritten note from backstage.
Harbour — who became stepdad to Lily Allen’s daughters Ethel and Marnie when he married the “Smile” singer in 2020 — was spotted enjoying the show from a VIP tent at Swift’s June concert at U.S. Bank Stadium. He got to talking about the show when Horowitz noted the actor must’ve pulled in some major “brownie points” by taking the kids to see an advanced screening of Marvel’s latest Guardians of the Galaxy installment in May, to which the actor replied, “Not as many brownie points as I got taking the stepdaughter to Taylor Swift, though. Talk about points!”
Revealing he “had to call in a lot of favors” in order to see the show, Harbour raved that Swift’s three-hour career-spanning production “was pretty extraordinary.” “We went to Minneapolis because it was the only weekend we could go see it and I love Minneapolis,” the Black Widow star continued. “It’s a real music town, too, like Prince. People are really there to see the concert as opposed to Instagram the concert, so it was like a perfect place to see it.”
“I did say as we went in, ‘If there is an opportunity to say hello …’ And they said, ‘She’s leaving on a plane right after the concert,” he added. “We sat there for about 30 minutes of the opener and then a woman came out with a letter. It was addressed to me and my stepdaughter, and it was a handwritten letter on a particular stationery. I’ve never seen my stepdaughter speechless.”
Harbour didn’t reveal specifics of what Swift’s letter said, but he did share that the “Anti-Hero” singer promised to send his stepdaughter a wave from the stage — a promise she made good on at the beginning of one of her songs. “She is a force of nature,” Harbour gushed.
“I didn’t really have any idea, it’s not really my … my thing was Madonna,” he went on. “I saw Madonna concerts, I saw Guns N’ Roses concerts. Seeing her perform for three-and-a-half hours, that’s like 45 songs. She barely leaves the stage, I don’t know when she pees. It’s ridiculous — she’s a force of nature.”
The interview, recorded prior to the ongoing WGA actors’ strike, comes just a few days ahead of Swift’s first Latin America concert in Mexico City, which will mark the Eras Tour’s first international show. A couple weeks prior, she wrapped up the trek’s first U.S. leg with six straight shows in Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium.
Watch David Harbour recall his Eras Tour experience above.
Sophie Turner is married to Mr. Perfectly Fine, and proud of it. Based on a recent Instagram post, the 27-year-old actress seems to have found a subtle way of trolling husband Joe Jonas about his superstar ex-girlfriend, Taylor Swift, while also supporting him on his big day. Sharing photos from the Jonas Brothers’ recent concert […]
The Taylor Lautners are in the same boat as millions of American Swifties: mourning the end of Taylor Swift‘s first U.S. Eras Tour leg.
In a recent Instagram Story, podcaster Tay Lautner and her husband, Twilight actor Taylor Lautner, opened up about experiencing a very specific type of PTSD after attending the Eras Tour at SoFi Stadium, where the pop star recently closed out six straight shows signaling the end of her bestselling trek’s first U.S. leg.
“PTSD: post Taylor Swift show depression,” quipped Taylor, asking his wife, “Is that real?”
“Absolutely,” replied Tay, who captioned the video: “When one show isn’t enough…”
The couple posted a handful of photos and videos from their time in the audience, at one point slow-dancing together as Swift performed “Midnight Rain” toward the end of the show. They were previously invited as special guests to the Grammy winner’s July Kansas City show, where Mr. Lautner assisted Swift onstage in premiering her “I Can See You” music video, in which he stars alongside Joey King.
“He was a very positive force in my life when I was making the ‘Speak Now’ album, and I want to say he did every single stunt that you saw in that music video,” Swift told the crowd that night of her friendship with Lautner, whom she dated briefly in 2009 and later penned the song “Back to December” about. “He and his wife have become some of my closest friends, and it’s very convenient because we all share the same first name.”
“Taylor, I respect you so much,” Lautner replied. “Not just for the singer you are, the songwriter, the performer, but for the human you are. You are gracious, humble, kind and I am honored to know you.”
See Mr. and Mrs. Lautner joke about having post T-Swift depression below: