• by Wayne Friedman , October 15, 2023

Continuing the strong pull in movie-theater business among female consumers starting this past summer with “Barbie,” AMC Entertainment and Variance Films’ “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” posted $96 million in U.S. box-office revenues, according to Comscore -- the best opening ever for a concert film.

Internationally, the movie pulled in another $32 million. Across 95 territories globally, this totals $128 million, according to Comscore. Some analysts were expecting a total as high as $150 million.

Advance sales of the movie in the U.S. amounted to $100 million -- largely attributable to AMC Theaters.

The Swift movie surpassed "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never" (2011) -- the previous record holder for a concert film, which tallied $76 million domestically for its entire U.S. and Canada run.

The “Eras” film also topped the 2009 Michael Jackson documentary “This Is It,”  which had a global opening weekend record of $74.3 million.

Even against this backdrop of sky-high expectations, Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst, for Comscore, said: “This is a film release like none other, with record setting advance ticket sales and tremendous social media exposure.” 

Swift had over 336 million fans and followers across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, and 48.8 million YouTube subscribers as of October 27, 2022, according to Comscore. 

Factoring that into the marketing equation, the release posted under a frugal TV advertising spend -- just $1.9 million, according to EDO Ad EnGage.

Research shows 82% of “Eras” ticket buyers were females.