Taylor Swift’s new documentary, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, has scored the biggest opening weekend for a concert film in history.
The film, which premiered in the UK on October 13, documents the six performances completed by Swift at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium earlier this year. The shows encompassed a career-spanning setlist that lifted songs from all ten of her albums from ‘Fearless’ to ‘Midnights’.
The New York Times reports that the film earned an estimated $126million (£103million GBP) in movie theatres globally, with $95million (£78million GBP) coming from North American screenings alone.
The remaining $31million (£25million GBP) came from The Eras Tour’s international screenings, which took place in over 90 countries and territories.
Swift’s documentary dethrones that of Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never, which brought in $41million (adjusted for inflation) in North America during its opening weekend in 2011. Bieber’s film ended its run with a total gross of US$138million worldwide.
Swift’s concert film was first announced in August of this year, and was released in Canadian and North American theatres a day earlier than expected on October 12. Beyoncé made a surprise appearance at the Los Angeles premiere of The Eras Tour last week.
Meanwhile, for UK screenings, movie-goers were encouraged by cinema chains Odeon and Cineworld to “shake it off and dance along” to the film. Swift’s opening weekend haul adds to a slew of additional records broken by the film, including the biggest-ever first-day presales for a concert film in the history of North American theatre chain, AMC.
The Eras Tour was directed by Sam Wrench, who has elsewhere helmed music documentaries for the likes of Billie Eilish, Mumford & Sons and Blur.
“The Eras Tour is a concert movie in the true sense,” NME wrote in a four-star review. “In the space of one seamless performance, Swift is at turns a playfully eccentric artist, a country star and a genuine pop icon.”
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