With friendship bracelets on their wrists and sparkly cowboy boots on their feet, Taylor Swift fans flocked to American theaters on Thursday to see the first showings of the pop megastar’s filmed concert.
No classic session here: Multiplex cinemas encouraged customers to dance, sing and take selfies throughout the screening of the “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” concert. A film that, driven by the hysteria surrounding the singer’s world tour, would become one of the year’s great successes.
“I’m going to scream so loud in my seat, I’m going to dance and hopefully exchange a few more friendship bracelets,” said Jamie Concha, 20, at a screening at Century City in Los Angeles. Angeles, also said “Love the Swifties,” the little name the fans called themselves.
The film, shot during three recent sold-out concerts in Los Angeles, without interviews, commentary or behind-the-scenes images, aims to ease the frustration of the star’s fans who were unable to get concert tickets or to relive the moment for others .
Almost everyone in the audience at Century City on Thursday had seen the show. “I came to four performances and saw the concert three times,” said Amber Eaves, 33.
“It was the best concert of my life. I cried the whole time,” Kasey Longstreet, 24, added.
“Quick” popcorn
Standing in line for the screening were two teenage girls with a bag full of friendship bracelets to hand out to the “Swifties.”
The colorful accessory full of allusions to Taylor Swift’s lyrics is very trendy on this tour and is being exchanged among fans. One Midwest theater chain even promised “friendship bracelet-making workshops” at the screenings.
Domestic box office estimates for the opening weekend put it at $150 million, a record for a concert film and numbers comparable to those of the summer hit “Barbie.”
Theaters that are still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic and facing a shortage of new films due to ongoing strikes in Hollywood are also benefiting from demand for Swift-branded products.
So AMC theaters charged $19.89 — a nod to Swift’s album “1989” — for cans of Swift popcorn. Employees pointed out that people came first thing in the morning to buy $11.99 cups, some buying the allowed 5 per theater seat.
The film was scheduled to hit theaters on Friday, but the singer announced Wednesday that previews would be held a day early “due to unprecedented demand.”
“I’m already going this weekend, but when she announced it at the last second, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I have to go after work,'” Amber Eaves said. “It’s just going to be one of those cultural phenomena that you can look back on and say, ‘I was a part of that.'”