Taylor Swift unexpectedly contributed to the struggling movie theater industry when she announced that her Eras Tour had been turned into a concert film. Taylor Swift's movie is already one of the highest-grossing films in a year where every studio has struggled to reach pre-pandemic box office highs. Even the likes of Christopher Nolan have praised Taylor Swift for what she has done for the industry. You might expect the fact that fans will soon be able to watch The Eras Tour Concert Film at home would have her legions of fans equally excited, but that doesn't appear to be the case.
There’s a lot of frustration on social media and Reddit among Swifties who feel that the impending December 13 VOD rental of The Eras Tour movie is some sort of Taylor Swift cash grab to wring a few extra bucks out of her fans. A lot of people seem to feel that the movie should be released free of charge because Taylor Swift is already rich. One fan voiced an opinion echoed by others, saying…
why wouldn’t she make it free. she’s a billionaire & we’ve already paid to see it in movies
While it’s perhaps understandable that a fan who has seen the movie in theaters already, and perhaps shelled out for actual Eras Tour tickets before that, feels slighted being asked to spend more money on a VOD rental, the fact is that, for the most part, the VOD rental isn’t appealing to the audience that has already seen the movie, rather those than have been waiting to watch it at home.
Of course, there is one major reason that some fans will want to rent the Eras Tour movie ASAP, as it contains content that wasn’t in the theatrical cut. The addition of new music is being seen by some fans as a way to just squeeze more money out of them…
“It would be a really fun way to celebrate my birthday by making more money off you so you can watch the three songs I strategically cut from the movie. Happy birthday to me!” I love her but it has really gotten out of hand.
It’s an understandable argument, but it’s not exactly a new tactic. Director’s cuts and other ways of making a movie new and different in order to be attractive to consumers is fairly normal. Still, many fans are seemingly seeing this VOD as greedy…
i’m sorry but mother has been getting kinda money greedy recently cause ain’t no way she needs to make it $20 to see one time she’s literally a billionaire
It’s all very strange coming from the perspective of somebody who is familiar with the lifecycle of a theatrical film, because we know this is entirely normal. After a movie leaves theaters, or sometimes even before, it is released as a VOD rental. Fans can watch the movie at home, usually as many times as they want over a 24-hour period.
And while the commenter above is preparing themself for a $20 price point for the rental, the fact is no pricing has been released yet. $20 VOD rentals became commonplace during the global pandemic, for movies that were being released on those platforms instead of theaters. While a $20 rental price is possible up front, once the movie is released for digital and physical sale, that price point will likely be around $20 and the rental price will probably drop to something like five or six bucks. Still, people are really not happy about the rental situation.
But again, the movie will be available as a digital rental for a few weeks, before it is released for both digital, and one assumes physical purchase. At some point after that, it will likely appear on at least one streaming platform, but considering how popular the movie is likely to be, that may not happen for a while to ensure Blu-ray sales remain strong for as long as possible.
One is welcome to have issues with the way that theatrical movies are handled when it comes to home and streaming releases, but the fact is that the Eras Tour movie is just following the same path as every other movie. If people want to just buy the movie on Blu-ray or watch it on streaming, that day will come, we're just not there yet.
