• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

The Taylor Swift brand continues in high gear with the in-theater limited-release film "Showgirl" taking in $33 million in domestic box-office revenue, according to IMDb’s Box Office Mojo.

The limited release (October 3-5) film -- officially named “Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” -- was easily the top movie theater box-office draw for the weekend in the U.S. and Canada.

“Showgirl” is a seamless brand extension for Swift’s new album “The Life of a Showgirl” and is key to its high-level video promotional marketing campaign. The movie is not a concert film or a documentary. It is a collection of music videos, behind-the-scenes footage, and videos of Swift lyrics for her new songs.

The film distributor -- AMC Theaters, the biggest U.S. movie theater owner -- did not go the traditional national TV route marketing route, but instead used a mix of social media, news interviews with Swift, in-theater AMC video pre-show promotion, and YouTube ad placements and co-branding efforts.

On the Taylor Swift YouTube site, the title song “Life of a Showgirl” pulled in 5.9 million views for two days through Sunday. A Target ad on Swift’s YouTube site took in 920,000 views.

The album itself sold 2.7 million copies of its first day of release, according to data tracking firm Luminate, as reported in multiple publications.

Although the album has not even completed its first week of release, the partial result places it as the second-highest week for any album since the data tracking of the company began in 1991. It is only behind Adele’s “25”, which came in at 3.89 million in its first week in 2015.

Internationally, it banked another $13 million. CinemaScore, a movie research company polling moviegoers, scored a top level “A+”. And not surprisingly, 90% of movie ticket sales were from female consumers, according to reports.

The movie follows the 2023 concert film” Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” -- also distributed by AMC Theaters -- the top-grossing concert film ever, earning $93.2 million domestically for its opening weekend.

Overall, the film took in $180.8 million in the U.S./Canada theatrical business and $261.6 million globally.