Taylor Swift Could Beat Barbie At The Box Office

Taylor Swift’s upcoming concert film, The Eras Tour, is looking to be the biggest film of Fall 2023. The film is already reporting record presale tickets sold and is looking at a minimum $100 million opening weekend. But it may not just be the biggest film of the Fall; Taylor Swift’s film could be the biggest film of 2023 overall.

Taylor Swift’s Popularity at the Cinema

Taylor Swift Eras Tour is an AMC-distributed concert film that has seen some of the highest ticket sales ever before release. The film is projected to make about $100 million domestically and $50 million overseas for opening weekend. But the percentage of sales has become the most interesting for Taylor Swift’s upcoming film.

Box office analytics EntTelligence reported (via Deadline) that the film has sold out showings for the first few days, per the advance ticket sales. The film will premiere on Friday, October 13, 2023, and is already looking to outpace most big blockbusters. This includes Marvel’s most recent blockbuster hit, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Warner Bros’s biggest hit of 2023, Barbie.

The Numbers Are Big

According to EntTelligence, 4,200 showtimes on opening night for The Eras Tour will be marked as “sold out,” defined by capacity being over 75%. That’s roughly 32% of the 13,000 showtimes for the Taylor Swift concert film. Compare this to this year’s biggest box office hit so far, Barbie, which only had 500 sold-out showings for its opening night.

It’s important to note that Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour will not have a Thursday preview opening. Barbie and Spider-Man: No Way Home had openings on Thursday evenings at 6 p.m. Since The Eras Tour will open on Friday evenings first, Taylor Swift’s concert film could be looking at a massive box office, even without Thursday previews.

Limited Showtimes

Despite this great news for the box office of Taylor Swift, her concert film does have some hindrances in terms of how many showings it will have. The Eras Tour will only have 65,000 showtimes, much smaller than Spider-Man: No Way Home, which had 105,000 showtimes. That said, it’s higher than Barbie’s 63,000 showtimes.

Due to these limitations, it’s unlikely that The Eras Tour will set an opening weekend record. The film is also hindered by a running time of two hours and forty-eight minutes, which will limit how many times it can be shown on a weekend. Simply put, there’s a big demand from audiences, but theaters might not be able to accommodate for a chance at a higher box office draw.

Will Taylor Swift’s Film Have Legs?

While the opening for The Eras Tour won’t break any box office major box office records, the massive draw may make the film even more profitable in the long run. With so many sold-out showings, theaters will likely add more showings and keep the film playing longer than expected. It remains to be seen how much continuous business the film will have going into the Fall.

For as big as The Eras Tour is expected to be, Taylor Swift will face some competition if her film continues onward into November. She must compete with Marvel Studio’s next entry, The Marvels, and Disney’s latest animated film, Wish. Even if she remains in December, she’ll compete more with Warner Bros’s upcoming comic book sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

At any rate, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is expected to have a big opening when it releases in AMC theaters on October 13, 2023.

Quick Summary

• Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour has more sold-out showings than Barbie.
• The concert film has limited showings may hinder it from breaking box office records.
• The Eras Tour aims to make $150 million worldwide for its opening weekend.