Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras’ Film Had the Highest-Grossing Domestic Opening Weekend for a Concert Film

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Movie had its Barbie moment this weekend.

Fans flocked to see Taylor Swift on the big screen as her Eras tour easily dominated another box office. The movie brought in $96 million domestically, easily blowing past The Exorcist: Believer and PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, according to Box Office Mojo. This makes it the highest-grossing domestic opening weekend for a concert film to date, CNN reported citing AMC.

The taping of several of Swift’s performances at SoFi stadium near Los Angeles became an instant blockbuster success globally, raking in $32 million in the international box office, according to the ticket sales tracker. Worldwide, the film brought in $128 million.

The product of a deal inked between Swift’s production team and AMC means the film is likely to turn a significant profit for both the pop superstar and the movie theater chain. Swift-mania has been a boon to industries wherever her tour has touched down, from travel and hospitality to the global economy. 

Now Swift is bringing her mega star-power, and her die-hard fans, to AMC. Even her fans are turning a profit by reselling branded popcorn tubs and soda cups for hundreds of dollars on eBay.

Ticket sales from Swift’s film this weekend accounted for about 70% of box office receipts, Paul Dergarabedian, a senior analyst at media analytics company Comscore, told The Wall Street Journal. 

“I thought I had seen everything with the ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon,” Dergarabedian told CNN. But “this Taylor Swift movie seemingly came out of nowhere … and here it is now in theaters, generating blockbuster-movie style opening weekend numbers.”

Greta Gerwig’s hot-pink cultural phenomenon Barbie raked in $155 million in its opening weekend, while Christopher Nolan’s historical biopic Oppenheimer brought in $80.5 million, temporarily rekindling excitement for movie theaters this summer.

Swift’s concert film broke records before it even debuted, becoming the highest advance sales revenue day in AMC’s 103-year history and bringing in $26 million in ticket-sales revenue just one day after the film was announced in late August. 

Beyoncé’s hit Renaissance tour is also hitting theaters in December, giving fans a chance to see the ultra-popular tour for just $22. The biggest domestic theater debut of a concert film prior to the Eras tour movie was Justin Bieber: Never Say Never in 2011, which grossed $73 million during its entire big-screen run, according to the Journal.