Taylor Swift is no stranger to No. 1. Her songs have topped Billboard’s Hot 100 chart nine times. She’s recorded a dozen No. 1 albums—the third most of any artist in history (behind the Beatles and their 19 chart-toppers and Jay-Z’s 14).
Well, Swift can add another trophy to her mantel now: To absolutely no one’s surprise, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is the weekend’s No. 1 movie, slipping into that top spot as if it was a nice, warm cardigan.
Could this cinematic love story have gone any other way? Perhaps not. When Swift announced that she’d be rolling the concert film onto 3,855 screens, other new releases knew that’d be trouble. So they scrambled to get out of her way. The Eras Tour was the only real ticket to ride this weekend. And what a ride it was.
Swift’s concert film raked in an estimated $96 million in North America alone. While that’s significantly less than the $130 million-plus that some prognosticators had been prognosticating, it was more than enough to become the highest-grossing concert film of all time (beating Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never, released in 2011). Swift’s film earned another $32 million overseas, bringing its overall earnings to a quite healthy $128 million. And that’s, naturally, on top of the billions (estimates vary) that the Eras Tour itself is raking in.
You know what else had a nice weekend? Movies with colons in them. The top three films all boasted that odd little punctuation mark, and dashes and semicolons could only look on in envy.
The Exorcist: Believer wasn’t nearly as scary as Swift this weekend, but it still managed to possess another $11 million stateside. That was good enough for second place, and it pushes it’s the horror sequel’s total domestic gross to nearly $45 million. Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie proved it still had some bark itself, scratching its way to $7 million and a third-place finish. In three weeks of work, Paw Patrol has earned $49.9 million.
Also in its third week, Saw X carved out another $5.7 million, increasing its own total earnings to $41.4 million. That’s pretty decent for an inexpensive horror flick, but killer John Kramer may still have to hold off on buying those diamond-encrusted manacles for the next sequel.
The Creator closed out the top five with $4.3 million, for a three-week domestic tally to $32.4 million.
One Response
I respect Taylor Swift for being the consumate businesswoman she is. She writes all her own songs, she plays several instruments, she’s a critical darling, and she has taken true control of her career. But I’m not particularly interested in her music. I still think Talking Heads’ “Stop Making Sense” is the greatest concert film ever made. I saw the 40th anniversary remastering in IMAX recently, and I was bopping around in my seat the whole time. It was like seeing a whole new movie. And I’m 64.