The immense popularity of the pop princess Taylor Swift may launch big sales for the concert film of her tour as big films are delayed.
After the gargantuan summer concert of Taylor Swift with her Eras Tour, it was inevitable a film of the event would eventually follow. Swift then announced recently that the concert film would only be just over a month away. The announcement was predicted to garner the same enthusiasm that her tour faced when tickets officially went on sale. The news of Swift’s film almost hit like lightning as the music star made her social media announcement, the AMC theater chain would brace for a stampede of presales, saying “it has shored up its ticket server capacity to handle traffic at more than five times the current record for most tickets sold in an hour.” Then, they set a record in advanced buys.
The Hollywood Reporter is revealing that theater exhibitors are predicting a record opening for the concert film that could rival that of the Barbenheimer phenomenon earlier this summer. Several sources have told the publication that they think Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour could gross an opening of $100 million based on the huge response in ticket presales. The business even considered the possibility of the movie ultimately grossing $150 or more domestically.
The film is actually a saving grace for theaters as the current strikes from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA have delayed the releases of some big movies. Big studio movies like the Sony Spider-man universe villain origin film, Kraven The Hunter, had been slated to release in October, only to now get delayed to next August. Similarly, the anticipated sequel to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, Dune Part Two, was going to have a November release, but the film will now see a March premiere. Those films have been postponed by the studios in hopes that the strikes will have resolved by then and the cast will be available to do promotion for their respective projects.
As it stands, the highest-grossing concert film belongs to Justin Bieber: Never Say Never from 2011. That film holds a record for a domestic gross of $73 million and an added international earning of $26 million that brings the total to $99 million, which is not adjusted for inflation.