With friendship bracelets on their wrists and glittering cowboy boots on their feet, Taylor Swift fans flocked to American cinemas on Thursday for the first screenings of the pop megastar’s filmed concert.
Here, no classic session: multiplexes encouraged customers to dance, sing, take selfies, throughout the screening of the “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” concert. A film which should become one of the great successes of the year, driven by the hysteria surrounding the singer’s world tour.
“I’m going to scream at the top of my lungs in my seat, I’m going to dance and hopefully exchange some more friendship bracelets,” Jamie Concha, 20, said at a screening at Century City in Los Angeles. Angeles, also saying “love the Swifties”, the nickname the fans have named themselves.
Filmed during three recent sold-out concerts in Los Angeles, the film, without interviews, commentary or behind-the-scenes images, aims to alleviate the frustration of the star’s worshipers who were unable to obtain concert tickets or to revive the moment to others.
Almost all the spectators at Century City on Thursday had seen the show. “I’ve come to four screenings and seen the concert three times,” said Amber Eaves, 33.
“It was the best concert of my life. I cried the whole time,” added Kasey Longstreet, 24.
Pop corn “Swift”
In the queue before the screening, two teenage girls arrived with a bag full of friendship bracelets, which they distributed to the “Swifties”.
The colorful accessory, full of references to Taylor Swift lyrics, is all the rage during this tour, being exchanged among fans. One Midwest theater chain even promised “friendship bracelet-making workshops” at screenings.
Domestic box office estimates for the opening weekend are calling for $150 million, a record for a concert film and numbers comparable to those of the summer hit, “Barbie.”
Cinemas, still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic and facing a shortage of new films due to ongoing strikes in Hollywood, are also benefiting from the demand for Swift-branded products.
So AMC theaters charged $19.89? a reference to Swift’s album “1989”? Swift popcorn boxes. Employees pointed out that people had arrived first thing in the morning to buy cups for $11.99, some buying the 5 allowed per cinema seat.
The film was due to hit screens on Friday, but the singer announced on Wednesday that “due to unprecedented demand”, previews would be held a day earlier.
“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’ll just be one of those cultural phenomena that you can look back on and say ‘I was a part of that.'”
10/14/2023 5:07:26 p.m. – Los Angeles (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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2023-10-14 15:08:00
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