To the surprise of no one, Taylor Swift fans helped The Eras Tour draw huge box office earnings in its opening weekend. It set a new record for concert films. More than that, it became one of the highest-grossing openings of the year.
Videos by American Songwriter
Originally, analysts predicted the Eras Tour concert film would rake in $100 million at the box office in its opening weekend. However, the film fell short of that mark, but not by much. CNBC reports that the film brought in between $95 million and $97 million in its opening weekend. This figure is based on estimated attendance (4.8 million people) and an average ticket price of $20.75.
While the film didn’t reach its predicted box office gross, Swifties still made The Eras Tour a massive success. It has already smashed the record for the highest-grossing concert film released domestically. It beat Justin Bierber’s Never Say Never brought in $73 million during its entire 2011 theater run in its opening weekend. Before Swift’s concert film, Miley Cyrus’ 2008 Best of Both Worlds had the record for the highest-grossing concert film opening weekend with $31.1 million.
Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com spoke to CNBC about the movie. “Swift, her fans, and theatrical exhibition should all be celebrating the results.” Robbins added, “The film’s debut is an undeniable tentpole-level success despite the challenges of predicting what it might achieve.”
Additionally, Eras Tour is the widest-released concert film ever. It landed on 3,850 domestic screens in its opening weekend.
However, some things will potentially limit the film’s overall gross. Most notably, The Eras Tour won’t screen during the week. Instead, it will have weekend-only screenings. This release plan doesn’t only have the ability to dampen the movie’s overall earnings. It will also make it more difficult to compare to other films to get a clear box office ranking.
When the official weekend tallies come out tomorrow, the world will see exactly how successful the concert film was. Those official numbers will decide if The Eras Tour will have the highest-grossing October opening. Currently, The Joker (2019) holds that record with a $96.2 million debut weekend. Additionally, the official tally will reveal if it is the sixth or seventh-highest-earning opening of the year. Currently, The Little Mermaid holds the number six spot. It pulled in $95.6 million when it opened earlier this year.
Maybe more surprisingly, analysts expect The Eras Tour to top the Michael Jackson concert film This Is It’s worldwide box office earnings. This Is It earned $262.5 million internationally during its theatrical run.
Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for TAS
