Proving her mega-influence once again, Taylor Swift is breaking records in the cinema as her Eras Tour movie becomes the biggest opening concert film of all time.
An undeniable hit with her devoted fans, the Swift’s film made between US$95m and $97m in its North America debut, according to the film’s distributors AMC Theatres. Even before hitting theatres, the Eras Tour movie’s advance ticket sales made it one of the highest-grossing concert films of all time, surpassing the $73m that Justin Bieber’s concert movie Never Say Never made in 2011.
As of Friday, it’s showing in 90 countries around the world, and considering she only announced the concert-film 6 weeks ago on social media, the success is even more unprecedented. It was deemed a “mini Barbie” before hitting screens with the amount of excitement it generated.
Although Swift’s live show comes in at a whopping 3-hours and 15-minutes, the film has broken things down into 2 hours and 45-minutes for theatre-goers. The footage is compiled from Swift’s summer shows at southern California’s SoFi Stadium, with videography that gives close-ups of intimate stage details– Swift’s backup dancers, dazzling costumes and sequins galore.
“It’s for the whimsical fairies, mindless dreamers, hopeless romantics and those who have been around to celebrate the last 17 years of music,” Swift writes about the film on Instagram.
The hype in theatres seems to be on par with that of the stadium tours, with many fans bringing friendship bracelets to share and dancing and singing along to the film– an experience that’s seeing people come back for multiple viewings.
Swift self-produced the film and stands to earn 57 per cent of ticket sales, according to Variety.
At the film’s premiere last week, she was joined by fellow musical queen Beyonce, whose influence Swift said has been a “guiding light” throughout her career.
“The fact that she showed up tonight was like an actual fairytale,” Swift wrote on Instagram.
While Aussies will be able to see the Eras Tour live in February, more than three million people have already gone to Swift’s first US leg of the tour. Tickets sold-out for her Sydney and Melbourne shows within hours, so her film offers a second chance to witness the magic.