Taylor Swift’s film “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” was the top-grossing film this week in North America, earning between $95 million and $97 million, AMC Theaters reported Sunday.
It’s the biggest opening of all time for a concert film, and excluding inflation, it’s more than the $73 million “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” took in 2011 (which would be about $102 million in US dollars). now).
If Monday’s top results are confirmed, Taylor Swift’s film will have the best opening for the month of October. To date, that record is held by “Joker,” which earned $96.2 million in 2019.
The film opened in 3,855 theaters in North America, beginning with “surprise” shows on Thursday night. Those schedules helped give it an opening day result of $39 million, the second-highest figure for an October month, behind “Joker’s” $39.3 million.
Swift, who produced the film, went through the entire Hollywood studio system to distribute the film, negotiating directly with AMC, the largest film exhibition company in the United States. With her 274 million Instagram followers, Swift doesn’t need a traditional marketing campaign to promote the film.
Beyoncé has a similar deal with “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” which will be released on Dec. 1. The two superstars joined together for the premiere of “The Eras Tour” this week in Los Angeles.
And “The Eras Tour,” directed by Sam Wrench, won’t just be showing in AMC theaters. The Leawood, Kansas-based company is working with distributors Variance Films, Trafalgar Releasing, Cinepolis, and Cineplex to show the film in more than 8,500 theaters in 100 countries.
Elizabeth Frank, executive vice president for programming and content at AMC Theatres, said in a statement that they are grateful to Taylor Swift.
“Their amazing performance delighted the fans, who dressed up and danced in the theaters,” said Frank. “Thanks to the great recommendations and the many people who bought tickets to see this film many times, we look forward to ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ showing to many people for many weeks to come.”
Taylor Swift’s tour was so popular that the Ticketmaster websites selling tickets stopped working, and the sale prices became astronomical. Pollstar projects that the tour will earn $1.4 billion. The movie theater offers better seats and a cheaper way to watch a movie, even more than once. Prices are higher than the national average, at $19.89 (a reference to Swift’s year of birth and the name of her 2014 album), but for specialty screens like IMAX, it’s about $29. But still, that’s cheaper than concert tickets.
Showtimes are more limited than regular Hollywood shows, but AMC guarantees at least four shows per day on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Many theaters announce that there are no refunds or exchanges. We will wait for the film to be available via streaming; the agreement with AMC stipulates the exclusive screening in theaters for 13 weeks.
The 10 highest-grossing movies from Friday to Sunday in theaters in the United States and Canada, according to Comscore The final numbers will come out on Monday.
1. “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour: $95 out of $97 million
2. “The Exorcist: Believer: $11 million.
3. “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie: $7 million
4. “Saw X: $5.7 million.
5. “The Creator: $4.3 million.
6. “A Haunting in Venice: $2,1 million.
7. “The Blind Man: $2 million
8. “The Nun II: $1.6 million.
9. “The Equalizer 3: $960,000.
10. “Dumb Money: $920,000.
