ERAS TOUR FILM:
A $100M OPENING?

Cinema insiders are predicting that Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour will set a box-office record for a concert film, topping $100m its opening weekend.

The Hollywood Reporter, quoting sources, reported that the film is looking at a nine-figure gross from its opening stanza of 10/13-15 and that it could top $150m in North America at the end of its planned limited run.

Deadline reported last week that the AMC, Regal and Cinemark chains had sold more than $37m in tickets in the first 24 hours of presales.

AMC Theatres, which has the distribution rights and has partnered with Variance to book the film at competitors’ cinemas, will hold at least four screenings a day, Thursday through Sunday, at every AMC location in the U.S. The run time of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is a healthy two hours, 40 minutes.

The record it would beat was set by Justin Bieber: Never Say Never in 2011, which made $73m at the domestic box office and another $26m overseas. The global record holder is Michael Jackson’s posthumous documentary/concert film This Is It, which earned $181.9m worldwide.

The Eras Tour benefits from the ongoing actors and writers strikes, which have led studios to move films out of their fall lineups due to the lack of publicity opportunities. Sony’s Kraven the Hunter, for example, has been pushed to August from 10/6 and Warner Bros./Legendary’s Dune: Part Two is eyeing a March release instead of its initial 11/3 opening.

Universal/Blumhouse’s The Exorcist: Believer and Bleecker Street’s rom-com What Happens Later were the first films to abandon their 10/13 openings to avoid the Swifities; the horror reboot is going a week earlier, on 10/6, while the Meg Ryan picture was moved to 11/3. Exorcist producer Jason Blum tweeted about the move, using a hashtag we all know to be true: #TaylorWins.