Coming out of the massive success of Taylor Swift’s latest tour, The Eras Tour, she is now making her way on to the big screen, with a movie version of her popular tour for fans to view in theaters. Ticket sales have already sold out, with the movie even beating 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in pre-sale tickets. The big three theater chains, which include AMC, Cinemark and Regal, are participating in the limited event, with all AMC locations offering at least four showtimes a day.
2023 hasn’t been the best year for movies in the box office, as numerous big release movies failed to be profitable for the studios. With Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour being the highest-grossing tour of all time by any artist, and the documentary already breaking box office records, it seems as if Taylor Swift might be the one to save the movie theaters.
But is this really the case? Could Taylor Swift help save the theaters?
Even though her documentary is being played in movie theaters for three days, it has already impacted some of the newer film releases coming out around the same time. The newest film in the Exorcist series, titled “The Exorcist: Believer,” was set to release on October 13 before the Taylor Swift film was even announced.
As a way to potentially promote and market the film, Jason Blum, CEO of the studio Blumhouse, posted “Exorswift” on X as a way to hint at what could’ve been the next “Barbenheimer.” Shortly after this, it was later announced that “The Exorcist: Believer” was going to be moving up its release date to October 6, with Jason Blum posting “Look what you made me do. The Exorcist: Believer moves to 10/6/23. #Taylorwins.” Even though Taylor’s film is just a recording of her tour, not even a CEO of a major studio could beat her at the box office that weekend.
The official announcement of the film proves just how popular Taylor Swift is right now. With her tour grossing over $2.2 billion dollars worldwide, it was not only popular among swifties, but also was great for the economy during a full-blown recession.
Just like the title of her tour suggests, it represents the journey through all of her musical “eras” of her entire career thus far. Each fan of hers has a different album that they would consider to be their favorite, and with her touring with all of them, it allowed for a broader appeal for her fans. Even though the movie is only going to be in theaters for three days, the early ticket sale numbers, and even the sales from the Eras tour (with a projected $2.2 Billion in sales according to CNN and TIME) prove that Taylor Swift is really on top of the world when it comes to the Entertainment industry.
When it comes to her saving the theaters, events like this could help in the future. For artists to do these limited theatrical versions of their concerts can help give people a reason to rush out and see it. It probably won’t entirely save theaters since the window to see this is so short, but if more artists release films like this it can help generate ticket sales quickly for theater companies, especially if revenue seems to be declining that year.
