Taylor Swift and the Eras Tour are coming to theaters in the form of a concert film, and movie theater employees are bracing for the impact of Swifties everywhere. Rolling Stone recently spoke with a handful of theater employees in the U.S. to gauge their preparedness and get their thoughts on what might happen when the film premieres on October 13.
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“I knew immediately it was going to be a lot of people who do not care about the rules of the location or the employees working there,” Viola, a Cinemark employee, said to Rolling Stone. “We have shown concert films before, and they usually cause the amount of issues you’d expect from people constantly screaming in a theater.”
Concert films present a unique situation, as the etiquette is usually more lax than with a normal film. Fans can dance and sing along, and are usually encouraged to by the artist, which is exactly what Swift told her legion of fans.
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“Eras attire, friendship bracelets, singing and dancing encouraged,” she stated in the film’s announcement on social media. Dressing up and exchanging friendship bracelets is a huge part of the Taylor Swift concert experience. Swifties generally adopted a polite — if incredibly enthusiastic — attitude at her shows, which directly opposed recent bouts of bad behavior at concerts. But, as Rolling Stone reported, there’s a difference between attending a concert at an arena and watching the concert film in a movie theater. That difference is what theater employees are worried about.
Viola from Cinemark continued, “The thing that’s concerning about the Eras Tour specifically is that it is being shown for two weeks with multiple showtimes per day. Every other concert film we have played is one or two days with limited showtimes — so they are a pain but tolerable to deal with for one night or so.”
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour will be shown at 4,000 theaters across North America with a minimum of four showings per day, four days a week. AMC Theaters already reported a record number of ticket sales, with the film bringing in $26 million in just one day.
According to Michael, an AMC employee, theaters across the country are treating Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour like any other big-budget opening day. “My managers have said that anyone who can work the days the concert is playing will most likely be working,” Michael told Rolling Stone. “They said it’s an all-hands-on-deck kind of thing, just like with opening weekends of Marvel movies.”
[RELATED: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Movie Can Be Seen in $800 ‘Private Swiftie Parties’]
Some questions remain: will Swifties respect the sanctity of movie theaters? Or will it be an all-out pseudo-concert, complete with screaming, singing, and dancing in the aisles?
Recalling the experience of Billie Eilish’s concert screenings from January, Viola stated, “We had multiple noise complaints as well as the people in the theater crowding around the front of the screen — acting as if they were at an actual concert. They were incredibly difficult to deal with. Dealing with that on a much larger scale is a big deal.”
Movie theaters across the U.S. are preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best. Michael from AMC hopes Swift fans keep in mind the difference between stadiums and movie theaters. “Me personally,” he began, “if I’m paying $20 to see a concert movie, I expect to be able to hear and watch the artist sing, not the fans being so loud I can’t even hear the artist.”
Swift set ticket prices at $19.89 for adults, and $13.13 for seniors and children. These are references to her fifth studio album and her lucky number. JD, a Galaxy Theatres employee, shared their thoughts with Rolling Stone about Swiftie behavior. “It’s almost like they’re more willing to listen to Taylor than the actual movie theaters that are creating the rules,” they explained. “I really think what it boils down to is Swifties feeling vindicated because their favorite musician, who was vilified for so long, is now more positively accepted into the public eye than ever before, and now they see her word as law.”
According to JD, some Swifties are taking Swift’s words to heart. They claim they’ll sing as loud as they want in the theater because Swift told them they could. JD continued, “It was somewhat of an expected reaction for most everyone, but still disheartening to think how much harder our jobs are going to be when the showings inevitably get too loud and rowdy.”
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