Taylor Swift’s Box Office Reign: 4 Takeaways From ‘Eras Tour’ Opening Weekend

variety.com:

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Taylor Swift may have singlehandedly salvaged the fall box office with “The Eras Tour.” The cinematic rendering of her sold-out stadium tour danced into theaters not just as a blockbuster, but a cultural phenomenon.

With $95 million to $97 million in its domestic debut and $130 million globally, it’s easily the best start of all time for a concert film, as well as one of the biggest opening weekends of the year.

At the higher end of projections, it could be the top-grossing October debut in North American history, a record currently held by 2019’s “Joker” with $96 million. “This October, without Taylor Swift, would have been awful,” says Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations. “This is a huge bright spot.” And Swift, who self-produced the concert film, shook up every aspect of the movie theater business — from top-tier pricing to unconventional distribution and marketing to lax cell phone etiquette — in the process.

Most notably, she cut out the middleman and partnered directly with AMC Theatres, the world’s largest cinema chain, rather than a major studio to unspool “The Eras Tour” on the big screen.