Taylor Swift already dominated record sales. Now, she’s crushing the box office

Taylor Swift has already dominated record sales and stadium tours, so now she’s moving onto her next conquest: the silver screen.

Her recent album launch film, The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, topped the Australian box office over the weekend, grossing over $2.89 million after just three days in theatres.

The movie, which was released alongside her new album The Life of a Showgirl, beat family favourites such as The Bad Guys 2 ($2.4 million), which is in its third week of release, and Hollywood heavy-hitters like Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another ($1.47 million), which has been in theatres for two weeks.

The Official Release Party of a Showgirl topped the box office in Australia over the weekend.Credit: Instagram

Though the box office for Release Party didn’t quite live up to that of Swift’s previous foray into cinema – Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour grossed $3.8 million in its opening weekend – cinema executives still consider it an impressive result for a less “conventional” film format.

“The Taylor Swift movie demonstrates the almost unbelievable ability of today’s stars to shift people from their couches and into venues, including cinemas, which, let’s face it, is the ultimate place to experience it,” said Benjamin Zeccola, chief executive of Palace Cinemas, which screened over 100 sessions of the film between Saturday and Monday.

“The power comes from the seemingly personal relationship we have with celebrities today. We know their cats’ names, what they had for breakfast and their boyfriend’s faults. We witness their engagements and marriages, and separations and affairs. It’s a parasocial relationship.”

Swift’s film performed similarly well overseas, claiming the top spot at the box office in the US and Canada over the weekend. The sing-along movie, distributed by AMC Entertainment Holdings, took in $US33 million (nearly $50 million) in ticket sales. That compares with a median estimate of $US35 million from industry tracker Boxoffice Pro.

The picture generated an additional $US13 million internationally, according to AMC, which said the event had been announced only two weeks ago and that it didn’t host the Thursday night previews or Friday morning screenings that other films typically do.

It’s the second Swift picture released by AMC, whose chief executive officer, Adam Aron, enjoys a friendship with Swift’s parents. In 2023, AMC’s Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film generated $US261.7 million at the global box office, making it the most successful concert film of all time. That picture opened to $US93.2 million in the US and Canada.

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Swift’s new movie propped up an otherwise slow weekend for cinemas. The Official Release Party of a Showgirl opened against adult-skewing pictures – The Smashing Machine from independent distributor A24 and the second weekend of One Battle After Another from Warner Bros Discovery’s film studio.

Alongside lyric videos for all 12 tracks in The Life of a Showgirl, the 89-minute film also debuted the music video for the lead song The Fate of Ophelia, as well as behind-the-scenes footage and personal commentary from the pop juggernaut.

With Bloomberg.

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