American singer-songwriter and award-winning musician Taylor Swift announced on Aug. 31 — through her Instagram — that the concert film version of her ongoing best-selling “Eras Tour” would be coming to AMC Theatres on Oct. 13. Swift’s concert film was shot in Los Angeles, California, during the final weekend of the first leg of the tour and has earned $37 million on first-day presales alone.
In her initial announcement on Instagram of the film, Swift described the tour as “the most meaningful, electric experience of my life so far, and I’m overjoyed to tell you that it’ll be coming to the big screen soon.”
“The Era’s Tour” concert film’s premiere took place at AMC The Grove 14 in Los Angeles, where over 2,000 lucky fans were selected to experience the release of Swift’s fifth concert film and the first one to debut in theaters worldwide.
Although it was not confirmed that the singer would attend the premiere, Swift appeared like a daydream in blue, wearing a gown by Oscar de la Renta. The Grove, a widely visited outdoor shopping mall, was completely shut down for the day, and fans and surprise guests entered the theaters to experience the magic of “The Eras Tour.” Among the fans and celebrities, social media was shocked to see none other than Beyoncé alongside Swift at the premiere.
As a longtime committed fan, I purchased a ticket to opening night on the first presale day. Attending the concert back in April in Tampa was undoubtedly an emotional rollercoaster and this film captured that same spark, magic, and pixie dust that floats around at a Swift concert.
Swift allows those small moments of making friendship bracelets and dressing up to be fun and exciting, no matter who you are or how old you are. In that AMC auditorium in Lincoln Square — where I went to watch the movie — everywhere I looked, there were fans representing each era of Swift’s career. People were dancing and cheering, and, during the finale, everyone got out of their seats and celebrated as if Swift was in the room with us.
I was transported not only back to my fourth Swift concert at the Raymond James Stadium but also to my 13-year-old bedroom, listening to Swift’s music after a long day of school. During this experience, I got interviewed by Desi Lydic for “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central for their segment “Desi Chats Up Swifties Outside Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ Screening.”
Throughout her discography, Swift has reinvented herself repeatedly, from a curly-haired girl singing about falling in love to a pop queen living her dream life in New York City. Her fans have grown up alongside her, from the dark period of “Reputation” to the “daylight” of “Lover.” We spent isolation with “Folklore” and “Evermore,” and then we revisited all those nights spent tossing and turning over the years with “Midnights.
Swift’s career has grown astronomically in 2023 after she announced on Instagram that she would be going on tour, one that her fans had long-awaited. After a five-year hiatus from touring following the end of the “Reputation Stadium Tour,” she returned to the stage with her brand-new sparkly adventure, “The Eras Tour,” which kicked off on March 17 in Glendale, Arizona.
The demand for tickets to “The Eras Tour” caused multiple sites to crash and prompted lawsuits with Ticketmaster, a premier booking and ticketing service provider for the arts and entertainment industry. Since then, Swift has continued to make her way to the top with herself as her only rival.
The shocking number of presales led many movie outlets to change their release dates of five upcoming films to avoid competition with Swift and her fandom. “Dumb Money,” “Ordinary Angels,” “The Persian Version,” The release of Meg Ryan’s “What Happens Later?” and David Gordon Green’s “The Exorcist: Believer” made way for the singer and the unchallengeable dominance of “The Eras Tour.”
Not even the devil could beat Swift or her fans: While the producers of the newest installment in the classic “Exorcist” series attempted to combine “The Eras Tour” with their new film with the hashtag #ExorSwift, resembling the summer trend of “Barbenheimer,” the attempt was frivolous due to the historic sales from Swift’s fans. Ultimately, the release date for “Exorcist” was moved to Oct. 6 in an announcement from Blumhouse head Jason Blum who wrote, “Look what you made me do. The Exorcist: Believer moves to 10/6/23, #TaylorWins.”
“Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” officially became the highest-grossing concert film of all time, raking in $96 million during its opening weekend and $130 million globally. According to AMC Entertainment, it took less than 24 hours for “The Eras Tour” concert film to shatter AMC’s U.S. record for the highest ticket sales revenue during a single day in the company’s 103-year history, dethroning “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Avengers: Endgame” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
The concert film combines her life, work, and memories of the most beautiful, cruel, happy, chaotic, enchanting, and reflective times. Memories turned into songs from albums to stadiums and now theaters worldwide.
The fans have always been and will always be her legacy, A legacy that reunited on Oct. 13 as we traded friendship bracelets, sang along, and relieved or, for some, experienced for the first time the spotlight of a once-in-a-lifetime experience known as “The Eras Tour.”