Taylor Swift concert film makes box office history

Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour has become the highest-grossing concert/documentary film in box office history with more than US$261.6 million earned globally.

The new record sees The Eras Tour usurp Michael Jackson’s This Is It, which opened in 2009 and grossed $261.2m at the global box office.

Upon the film’s release in October 2023, The Eras Tour made $92.8m in North America and $30.7m internationally for a cumulative total of $123.5m, making it the biggest opening weekend of all time for a concert film.

It unseated 2011’s “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never,” which earned $73m in the same timeframe. At the domestic box office, it stood as the second-biggest October debut ever behind 2019’s “Joker,” which pulled in $96m, and had the seventh-biggest opening weekend of 2023.

Swift stands to reap more than half of the ticket sales from The Eras Tour, thanks to a non-traditional release that saw her avoid opting for distribution from a major studio.

“Her spectacular performance serves as another strong reminder about the power of extraordinary filmmaking”

Instead, the superstar partnered with the world’s largest cinema chain, AMC Theatres, which allowed her, as a producer on the film, to reap about 57% of ticket sales. Cinemas kept the remaining revenue and AMC took a small distribution fee.

The film played in 3,855 cinemas (including non-AMC venues) throughout the US and Canada and 4,527 venues internationally. Most recently, it opened in China with a tally of $8.7m following its debut on 31 December. On 13 December, Swift’s birthday, the film was released on streaming.

“On behalf of all of us at AMC Theatres, I send my congratulations and eternal gratitude to Taylor Swift for her remarkable and record-setting box office performance with ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour‘ concert film,” says AMC Chairman and CEO Adam Aron. “Her spectacular performance delighted fans around the world and serves as another strong reminder about the power of extraordinary filmmaking and magic of movie theatres.”

Swift resumes the Eras Tour on 7 February with a four-night stint at the Tokyo Dome in Japan. Following that, the tour moves on to Australia, Asia and Europe and concludes in Canada.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.