Ever since it was announced that Taylor Swift‘s five-night L.A. concert residency had been filmed for release by AMC Theaters Distribution across the nation, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour was a huge sensation that would bring in the diehard Swifties and the casual pop music lovers alike. Unfortunately, there was a lot of bad reporting about tracking and presales for the movie, which made it sound like it would open well over $100 million, which ended up not being the case.
After all, it had some of the fastest sales in AMC history, reportedly selling $35 million in tickets in its first 24 hours, and over the next few weeks, it was racking up $100 million in presales, though it was never clear if that was just for North America opening weekend or included
On Wednesday night, at the L.A. premiere for The Eras Tour, Swift announced that after the initial plans to open the movie on Friday night, Oct. 13, the movie would also get previews on Thursday night, which went on sale roughly eight hours before the first shows. Since many of Swift’s biggest fans already had tickets, it ended up only making $2.8 million in those Thursday previews, but added into the Friday take, that led up to an opening day of $39 million.
That was on par with the $39.3 million opening day for Joaquin Phoenix‘s Joker, which currently held the October opening record with $96.2 million, one of the benchmarks Swift’s concert movie was trying to surpass. (One must bear in mind that ticket prices for The Eras Tour were higher than the norm, and subscription services like AMC A-List program weren’t available to use to buy tickets.)
As of Sunday morning, the estimates for The Eras Tour ranged from $94 to $97 million, which wasn’t definitive enough for Swift’s movie to open higher than Joker, forcing everyone to wait until later on Monday for confirmation either way. (UPDATE: It’s now being reported that Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour has only grossed $92.8 million in its opening weekend, so it will have to settle for the second-best October opening.) $11.1 million of that domestic gross came from IMAX screens on which the movie opened, with plans to return to IMAX after the initial opening for Martin Scorsese‘s Killers of the Flower Moon on Thursday.
Regardless, that projected range was more than enough for The Eras Tour to become the highest-grossing concert film domestically, passing the $73 million made by Justin Bieber: Never Say Never in 2011. Adding in the estimated $32 million grossed overseas in 94 territories, The Eras Tour has surpassed Bieber’s $99 million global gross with somewhere between $126 and $130 million.
David Gordon Green‘s horror “requel” The Exorcist: Believer dropped to second place with $11 million (down 58.5%) with a domestic total of $44.9 million. Overseas, it grossed another $15.9 million this weekend, debuting with $1.7 million in France and $1.5 million in Brazil, for a global total of $85 million, a little under half of its current global gross from international markets.
Paramount‘s animated PAW Patrol: The Might Movie took third place with $7 million, down 38% with $49.9 million grossed domestically.
Surprisingly, Lionsgate‘s horror sequel, Saw X, bringing back Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith, had a smaller third weekend drop, down just 27% to take fourth place with $5.7 million. It has grossed just $41.4 million domestically so far, still on the lower side for the franchise, but a horror movie holding up so well in its third weekend bodes well for its continued legs in the spookier month of October.
Gareth Edwards‘ The Creator followed in fifth place with $4.3 million, down 31% to bring its domestic total to $32.4 million. It added another $5.9 million overseas to bring its global total to $79.1 million, which has to be seen as a disappointment for Disney and 20th Century Studios.
Kenneth Branagh‘s murder mystery, A Haunting in Vegas, retained sixth place in its fifth weekend, now in 2,290 theaters, earning $2 million (down 24%) to bring its domestic total to $38.9 million.
The Nun II maintained its 7th place slot with $1.6 million, down 38%, followed by Fathom Events‘ The Blind in eighth place with $1.4 million, dropping 57% in its third weekend. After Swift’s movie, The Nun II is still one of the fall’s biggest movies with $83.8 million domestic and $257.2 million globally.
Sony wrapped up the top 10 with both The Equalizer 3 and Dumb Money making less than a million.
Either way, Swift helped make this the biggest weekend at the domestic box office since early August, while also breaking and setting a number of new records.
Having won the Palme D’or at the Cannes Film Festival in May, Justine Triet‘s procedural drama Anatomy of a Fall, starring Sandra Hüller, was released by NEON into five theaters in New York, L.A. and San Fran, where it grossed $125,000, averaging roughly $25,000 per location.
Killers of the Flower Moon is the biggest new release on Friday (with previews on Thursday) while A24 will expand Larry Charles‘ Dicks: The Musical nationwide.
| Rank | Entry | Distributor | Revenue | Theater Count | Total Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TAYLOR SWIFT | THE ERAS TOUR | AMC Theatres Distribution | $92,804,678 | 3,855 | $92,804,678 |
| 2 | The Exorcist: Believer | Universal | $10,979,750 | 3,684 | $44,906,700 |
| 3 | PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie | Paramount Pictures | $6,887,287 | 3,707 | $49,774,003 |
| 4 | Saw X | Lionsgate | $5,679,448 | 3,058 | $41,408,568 |
| 5 | The Creator | 20th Century Studios | $4,333,632 | 2,960 | $32,439,376 |
| 6 | The Blind | Fathom Events | $1,950,500 | 1,164 | $13,900,442 |
| 7 | A Haunting in Venice | 20th Century Studios | $1,947,772 | 2,290 | $38,889,728 |
| 8 | The Nun II | Warner Bros. | $1,622,236 | 2,128 | $83,754,922 |
| 9 | The Equalizer 3 | Sony Pictures | $950,266 | 1,524 | $90,557,759 |
| 10 | Dumb Money | Sony Pictures | $900,346 | 2,276 | $12,606,487 |
