Taylor Swift is no stranger to breaking records. She just became the first female artist to hit 100 million monthly Spotify listeners, and her Eras Tour is on track to become the biggest tour of all time. At this point, the pop princess is practically unstoppable. However, she’s not quite done breaking records, and this time, she smashing one within the movie world. Swift announced that her Eras Tour concert film will be getting a theatrical release in October, and it just broke AMC’s record for presale tickets, surpassing Spider-Man: No Way Home. Now, this has me wondering, could this start a trend for concert films?
According to a press release by AMC Theaters, Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour set a record for advanced ticket sales for the company. The movie had the highest ever single-day advance ticket sales revenue, after the announcement Thursday morning that the movie would have a cinematic release. The film generated $26 million in ticket-sales revenue on Thursday, which broke Spider-Man: No Way Home’s $16.9 million record. Even more impressive, the concert film broke the record within three hours of being announced.
These are absolutely astounding numbers, truly showing the strength of Swift’s reach and fanbase. These numbers are on par with a major blockbuster film release, proving that putting The Eras Tour in theaters made financial sense for AMC. Audiences love an event film. We saw this during the summer with Barbie and Oppenheimer, whose event marketing helped the two films achieve incredibly strong box office numbers. The concert film currently only has four dates available, however, this could be extended considering the presale success for the existing dates.
This is also a big sign for concert films in general, and Swift could be starting a trend with her release strategy for her Eras Tour film. While concert films have gotten theatrical releases before, many concert documentaries have landed on streaming with at-home distribution being favored for the format. However, The Eras Tour and other major tours from this year like Beyonce’s Renaissance Tour and Harry Styles’ Love on Tour have become their own phenomena, encouraging people to dress up and experience their concerts as a cultural moment. This could translate well to the event marketing of movies, and encourage other artists to release concert films theatrically.
The Eras Tour has already had an effect on other films surrounding the release schedule. Jason Blum moved his production company’s The Exorcist: Believer up on the 2023 movie schedule by a week so they aren't competing as directly with Swift. Many fans have also pointed out that The Eras Tour is set to release a week ahead of Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. These films, stylistically and format-wise could not be more different, and likely won’t take business away from each other if AMC decides to extend Swift’s theatrical run. However, if she can overtake Spider-Man, she can do anything. Maybe we’ll have another "Barbenheimer" level event on our hands.
Swifties can check out Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour when it hits theaters the weekend of October 13th. Fans who want to experience her previous concert film, Taylor Swift Reputation Stadium Tour, can do so now with a Netflix subscription.
