US singer and songwriter Taylor Swift performs during her Eras Tour at Sofi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on 7 August. Picture: AFP
Didn’t score tickets for Taylor Swift‘s Eras tour?
Never fear − the culturally defining juggernaut will hit movie theatres with a concert film released on 13 October.
“The Eras Tour has been the most meaningful, electric experience of my life so far and I’m overjoyed to tell you that it’ll be coming to the big screen soon,” Swift said on social media on Thursday.
“Eras attire, friendship bracelets, singing and dancing encouraged.”
The giant AMC movie chain is vowing that each of its theatres across the United States will play the film at least four times a day on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
The company said it had upgraded its website and ticketing services to “handle more than five times the largest influx of ticket-buying traffic the company has ever experienced before”.
“But AMC is also aware that no ticketing system in history seems to have been able to accommodate the soaring demand from Taylor Swift fans,” the statement added, warning that customers may experience delays and outages.
Earlier this year botched sales for Swift’s wildly popular tour wreaked havoc, prompting a congressional hearing over Ticketmaster‘s purported anti-competitive practices.
And while Eras tickets reached thousands of dollars, fans will be able to nab movie viewings at $19.89 (around R350) for adults, $13.13 for children and seniors, plus tax.
As of Thursday morning, the website for AMC showed that opening weekend tickets in the New York area were already close to selling out.
A few hours after Swift’s announcement, the release of Universal’s sequel to horror classic The Exorcist was pushed up a week to avoid clashing with the concert film.
“Look what you made me do. The Exorcist: Believer moves to 10/6/23 #TaylorWins,” producer Jason Blum posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
The 33-year-old Swift wrapped the North American leg of her global tour with four shows in Mexico, and will pick up in Argentina in November, with plans to tour into the end of 2024.
With 146 total stadium dates, it is expected that she will set the record for the first billion-dollar tour, with trade publication Pollstar estimating she’s selling some $14 million in tickets per show.
Swift’s team does not report box office numbers.
The current record-holder is Elton John, whose Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, which began in 2018, ultimately made $939 million.
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