‘I’d watch it every night’: Taylor Swift fans turn out for record-breaking concert movie

The premiere of the Eras Tour concert film, a surprise one day earlier than planned, got Swift’s devoted fans singing along and dancing in the aisles

For weeks, theater chains in the US have discovered the depth of the public’s interest in Taylor Swift: colossal, and seemingly endless. The question dogging Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, the concert film version of her commerce-shifting, career-spanning stadium show, is not if it will be record-breaking but by how much. It’s already the most lucrative concert film in US presales, and dropped a money bomb into the October box office calendar; producer Jason Blum moved the premiere of The Exorcist: Believer up a week so as not to compete (“#TaylorWins,” he tweeted).

In terms of raw economic power, Swift stays winning. The film, which the 33-year-old singer produced and financed herself for about $15m, is projected to take in as much as $125m domestically in its opening weekend, plus around $60m overseas – a much-needed bump for theaters in their post-Barbenheimer slump, as the joint actors and writers strikes pushed a number of premieres to 2024. And in bypassing streamers and studios altogether, Swift has forged a cinematic profit lane already reaping results for other artists; Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour film, which has a similar direct distribution deal with AMC, has already sold $7m in tickets for its 1 December release.