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Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is one of the biggest movies of the year. It’s been number one at the box office for two weeks and it’s already made about $132 million domestically. The Eras Tour probably won’t be #1 this weekend, because Five Nights at Freddys is being released, but who knows. Taylor Swift is a juggernaut no matter what she does. The Hollywood Reporter did a lengthy piece this week about how The Eras Tour should bring about a revival in “concert films” getting theatrical releases. In recent years, there have been many concert films or live concert events, most of them sold exclusively to streaming services. Taylor went in a different direction, producing The Eras Tour by herself and giving director Sam Wrench the power to get all kinds of stage coverage, with 40 cameras used across the So-Fi Stadium in LA. THR added some amazing details about the deal Taylor made to distribute the movie to AMC, and her reticence to negotiate a streaming deal for The Eras Tour while the SAG-AFTRA strike is ongoing. Like, y’all know that I can take or leave Taylor as a person, but as a businesswoman? She f–king rocks.

Taylor is making a massive profit from The Eras Tour movie: Insiders note that Swift’s is a rising tide that lifts all boats, with artists and their teams already making calls and taking cues from Swift’s Eras deal, which sees her keep an outsized portion of the film’s $160.4 million global haul after its second weekend in release.

Taylor didn’t even need to release the movie through the studios: Insiders in the filmed concert production space note that, following the Eras Tour announcement, traditional Hollywood studios have been reaching out in earnest, looking for partnerships. Studios argue that they have the distribution and marketing infrastructure in place to successfully launch a feature, but observers note anyone near Swift’s level is unlikely to be wooed. (For Swift, partnering with AMC meant 57 percent of ticket sales would be shared by Swift and AMC — with the majority going to Swift. The other 43 percent goes to the theaters.)

Taylor bets on herself because she can: “Why, if you’re Taylor Swift, would you want a company inserting themselves into that model and taking a percentage of your money if you don’t need to do that?” points out one dealmaker who works in the space. As for what model to go with — straight-to-steaming or a possible theatrical release in more of a Swift model — they add, “The artist has to decide: Do they want this upfront talent fee, or do they want to take the risk on the money down the road?”

Taylor isn’t negotiating a streaming deal during the SAG-AFTRA strike: As for where The Eras Tour lives after its theatrical run, the SVOD rights are expected to be a hot commodity, with practically every major service throwing their hat in the ring and entering into conversations with team Swift. While it is unclear where the rights will land, several streamers have been told that the Swift team is waiting for the end of the SAG strike to begin negotiations in earnest.

[From THR]

I honestly didn’t know any of this – I didn’t know that Taylor basically financed the concert movie herself and bypassed the studios to make a distribution deal with AMC directly, and she’s pocketing something close to 50% of the movie’s ticket sales. That is absolutely f–king baller. Like, she went to AMC and said “I produced this immersive concert film, let’s make a deal” and completely cut out every middleman. And then to top it off, she’s using her name and power to hold off on selling the streaming rights until the strike ends. Amazing.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

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