Taylor Swift is bringing her Eras Tour to movie theaters this fall, hoping fans will pay for a discount version of the dazzling concerts that have sold out venues around the world.
"The Eras Tour has been the most meaningful, electric experience of my life so far and I'm overjoyed to tell you that it'll be coming to the big screen soon," Swift announced on social media Thursday, after finishing the first North American leg of her tour last week. "Eras attire, friendship bracelets, singing and dancing encouraged."
AMC began selling tickets to "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" the same day, saying in a statement that it had "bolstered its ticket server capacity to handle traffic at more than 5 times the current record for the most ever tickets sold in an hour." The movie will premiere in the United States, Canada and Mexico on Friday, Oct. 13 - presumably a reference to Swift's lucky number.
The movie theater chain warned of possible delays and site crashes due to anticipated demand for tickets, alluding in its statement to Ticketmaster's infamous meltdown when the tour was announced last November.
By Thursday afternoon, fans were posting images of their seat maps and virtual queues on social media. Tickets cost $19.89 for adults (a reference to Swift's "1989" album, which she is set to release a new recording of in October) and $13.13 for children and seniors.
Swift has previously released films about her 2009-2010 Fearless Tour, her 1989 World Tour (in 2015) and her Reputation Stadium Tour (in 2018) - though those movies opened after the tours had ended. "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour," by contrast, will release before Swift resumes her latest tour in November - starting in Argentina before hitting the global circuit and returning to the United States and Canada in November next year.
Eras is on pace to earn more than $1 billion and become the highest-grossing tour of all time, according to Variety, and tickets have been reselling for thousands of dollars. AMC said there would be no refunds or exchanges on movie tickets "to discourage speculation on secondary-ticketing sites."
AMC Theatres plans on holding at least four showtimes per day from Thursday to Sunday during opening weekend in the United States. Theater chains Regal and Cinemark also have showtimes available for the movie.
The film announcement ends a mystery about why there were a slew of cameras set up at Swift's show at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles in August, according to Variety.
