Written by Kianna Best on Oct 17, 2023. Posted in Production News

Taylor Swift tops box office with Eras Tour concert flick

Taylor Swift extends her industry breaking world tour to movie theatres across the world with the release of concert film Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. The Box Office topping project, which premiered on 13 October, follows Swift’s journey from city to city, captured by Director Sam Wrench. The high performing project is set to be followed by the 1 December release of Beyonce’s Renaissance Tour flick.

Following in the footsteps of documentary style concert set blockbusters from Justin Bieber’s This Is My World project to the dissection of Michael Jackson’s This Is It tour preparation, Taylor Swifts is bringing the experiential film format back to cinemas. Swift’s Eras World Tour became the highest grossing concert event this year, and the results of its film counterpart’s box office performance reflect that. Earning USD 92.8 million in domestic theatres during its 3 day debut, the concert film became the highest grossing film of its kind and the second highest domestic release for this month across all genres.

The concert film genre has long provided a unique experience, extending the impact of on stage performances to the screen and reaching wider spreading audiences. As the world of entertainment continues to become more and more interlinked, the concert film is witnessing a unexpected resurgence in theatres, with the likes of Beyoncé set to follow suit with the December release of Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.

Beyoncé  is no stranger to concert based projects, partnering with Netflix for the release of her Coachella spectacle Homecoming released in 2019. Along with Billie Eilish's Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles project that released on Disney Plus, as well as a host of other concert based performance flicks, streaming platforms had been the go to channel for release. But with Taylor Swift's extension of her tour to the theatre, and actively encouraging audiences to participate no differently to if they attended the show, the in person cinema experience provides a new dimension.

With cinema attendance in the UK alone up 63% since 2022, according to statistics from the European Audiovisual Observatory, but still below pre-pandemic levels, the theatre based releases of concert films brings back the sense of experience to cinema going that can’t be replicated through streaming. The documentary based projects peel back a layer below the ticketed events, providing accessibility to the concert going experience and beyond, to fans and newcomers alike.

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