Taylor Swift leads the US box office with film from new album

In an unprecedented victory for a release announced just two weeks ago, American pop superstar Taylor Swift’s debut album film topped the US box office with approximately $33 million.

“Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl”, shown in theaters for three days to coincide with the release of the singer’s latest album, “The Life of a Showgirl”, was shown in more than 3,700 theaters in the United States and Canada and in another 3,588 theaters internationally. The film grossed around US$13 million (around R$70 million) outside the country, according to AMC, totaling US$46 million (around R$245 million) globally.

“On behalf of AMC Cinemas and the entire theatrical exhibition industry, I express our sincerest gratitude to the iconic Taylor Swift for bringing her brilliance and magic to theaters this weekend,” AMC CEO Adam Aron said Sunday in a statement shared with CNN. “His vision to add a cinematic element to his incredible album release was nothing short of a triumph.”

Unlike Swift’s 2023 film “The Eras Tour,” which broke concert film records, “Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” is the only album release film to finish No. 1 at the domestic box office and is the highest-grossing album debut film, according to AMC.

“Taylor Swift understands the importance of film as a cultural touchstone. Her fans can all be together without having to go to one of her shows,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of market trends at Comscore.

David A. Gross, who writes the industry newsletter FranchiseRe, described the film’s success as something “no other musical artist on the planet can do.”

“One Battle After Another”, from Warner Bros. Pictures, which opened last weekend, came in second at the box office, grossing around US$11 million this week, a 49% drop from the previous week.

“Coração de Lutador: The Smashing Machine”, from A24, premiered this weekend and came in third place with a modest US$6 million (about R$32 million), below estimates that predicted around US$10 million (about R$55 million).

“That’s what October is all about,” Dergarabedian said, noting that it’s “not about summer popcorn” or big premieres, as good reviews are needed during awards season.

Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory, noted that the mixed martial arts drama fell short of expectations despite the stardom of Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.

“There will be a lot of speculation about whether it was due to the Taylor (Swift) movie announcement… (but) there’s not a lot of common ground,” Robbins said.

Fourth place at the weekend box office went to Universal Pictures’ “Gabby’s Dollhouse – The Movie” ($5.2 million), followed by Warner Bros.’ hit “The Conjuring 4: The Last Ritual” ($4 million, about R$21 million). of September.

“Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba — Infinite Castle”, from Crunchyroll, owned by Sony, remains strong, finishing in sixth place with total domestic revenue of US$124.6 million (about R$670 million). September’s unexpected success, which broke records for anime films, has Hollywood reevaluating future releases in what some consider a niche genre.

But that will be put to the test on October 24, when Crunchyroll releases “Chainsaw Man: The Movie — Prayer Arc,” a continuation of the “Chainsaw Man” anime series. The film surpassed “Infinite Castle” in Japanese cinemas when it opened abroad on September 19, grossing US$23.7 million (about R$125 million) in its first 15 days, according to an announcement from the film’s press office at X.

“Chainsaw Man” is a popular franchise, Robbins said, and is now expected to perform better at the domestic box office than it would have before the success of “Infinity Castle.”

“But anime is always very difficult to predict because that audience is still growing and (the genre) also tends to have a large concentration of audiences in the early days,” he said.

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