Let’s Talk About Taylor Swift Outside of the Context of Her Relationship for a Moment, Shall We?

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 16 October 2023

Sure, sure, Taylor Swift is currently one half of the most famous couple in the world (we don’t really have to tell you who the other half is), but let’s focus on her work for a moment, shall we? Over the weekend Swift’s concert film, The Eras Tour, shattered box office records, raking in upwards of $95 million and surpassing Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never to take the top spot for the biggest concert film debut ever.

The film compiles footage from Swift’s August shows in Los Angeles, and, in addition to bringing home the proverbial bacon, it was also critically praised, scoring an impressive A+ Cinemascore and a 100 percent fresh rating on RottenTomatoes.com. That makes for “a blockbuster-style opening domestic weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore (and per People). For comparison’s sake, Bieber’s concert film grossed $73 million total (not just its opening weekend) over the course of its 2011 domestic run.

“This is a huge win for Taylor Swift and her family,” said Matthew Belloni, who first reported the terms of Swift’s theatrical deal in his newsletter, Puck. By cutting a deal directly with AMC Entertainment instead of traditional movie studios, Swift “bypassed the traditional Hollywood system and, like many things in her life, she came out on top,” Belloni said. “This is a huge financial windfall.”

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The whole experience felt very much like Swift: “inside packed theaters, fans traded (more) friendship bracelets, sang along at full pitch, and danced in the aisles, taking cell phone videos of the screen (allowable in a rare instance by theaters) and eating out of coveted Swift-adorned popcorn buckets,” People reports. True to Swift culture, ticket prices were $19.89 (plus tax) for adults, and $13.13 for seniors and children (plus tax).

And drinks will be on Swift for a good long while: Puck reported that 43 percent of the movie’s gross profits will go to theaters, with the remaining 57 percent shared (in an undetermined split) by Swift and AMC.

Its debut comes about six weeks before Beyoncé’s film about her own successful tour, the Renaissance World Tour, hits theaters on December 1. “Successful concert films are one of the rarest events in the theatrical community,” said Jeff Bock, senior box office analyst for Exhibitor Relations Co. “It just doesn’t happen very often—maybe once a decade. And now we’re getting two of these films back-to-back, with both expected not only [to] be very successful but start a new cinematic trend.”

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Taylor Swift attend the "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" Concert Movie World Premiere at AMC The Grove 14 on October 11, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.

And, as the film breaks records, so did the tour itself—Entertainment Tonight reports that, according to conservative estimates, The Eras Tour is expected to break the $1 billion mark when all is said and done, making it the highest-ever grossing tour in history.

No offense, but…Travis who?

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.