Taylor Swift's concert film hasn't even been released yet and it's already toppling box-office records.
Cinemark, a theater chain with about 500 locations, said that ticket sales for "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" are "setting domestic presale records" with demand "10 times higher" than any other film released through the company. The reaction has "blown everyone away," Cinemark announced in a press release.
Excitement has been building for the 3-hour-long film, which is opening Friday, October 13. An ad for the movie even aired during NBC's "Sunday Night Football" last weekend, where Swift made an appearance to cheer on her possible boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce.
Cinemark is not the first theater chain to experience an increase in sales via Swift: AMC Theaters previously announced that the singer's Eras Tour concert movie "shattered records for single-day advance ticket sales revenue," with $26 million sold on the first day that presales went live on August 31.
Swift's movie crushed the single-day record less than three hours after tickets became available, prompting AMC to add extra showtimes where possible.
The concert film, which is being screened in some theaters in both IMAX and standard versions, is expected to rake in between $100 million to $125 million in its opening weekend, according to industry estimates.
Superstar Beyoncé is also releasing a film version of her "Renaissance World Tour" for a theatrical release. Ticket presales began Monday for the December 1 premiere.
For theaters eying a potentially grim fall with the ranks of movies thinned out by the (recently resolved) writers strike and the actors strike, the one-two punch looks like a gift from the musical gods. It's a potential means of filling seats that doesn't rely on what has come to look like an increasingly shaky theatrical business even with usually reliable studio blockbusters.
In addition to Swift and Beyoncé, the box office also has been helped out by another fierce female: "Barbie." The film hit the $1 billion global box office mark barely three weeks into its run — only about 50 films in history, adjusted for inflation, have reached the benchmark. It's made more than $630 million in the US box office since its July release. (CNN and "Barbie" movie distributor Warner Bros. Pictures share the same parent company.)
