Recently, director Christopher Nolan complimented Taylor Swift for her concert film and stated that the Hollywood studios lost out on a great opportunity by not releasing the movie.
Direct distribution of Taylor Swift's movie Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour took place through AMC theatres. At a City University of New York event, Nolan expressed his confidence that the movie would succeed financially.
“Taylor Swift is about to show the studios because her concert film is not being distributed by the studios, it’s being distributed by a theatre owner, AMC, and it’s going to make an enormous amount of money,” Nolan said. “And this is the thing, this is a format, this is a way of seeing things and sharing stories, or sharing experiences, that’s incredibly valuable. And if they don’t want it, somebody else will. So that’s just the truth of it,” the Oppenheimer director said.
He added, “Any time a film that isn’t expected to succeed, and we vastly exceeded our highest expectations for the project [Oppenheimer], it’s encouraging everyone, it’s encouraging for the studios and the filmmakers. That tension, that reality … between commerce and art, that formula never changes in Hollywood, because it’s just a reality of the industrial process. Films are very expensive to make.”
With its $92.8 million North American and $123.5 million worldwide opening weekend box office, Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour is undoubtedly the highest launch for a concert film ever.
It’s also the second-highest-grossing October opening in history (trailing only Joker at $96 million) and the seventh-biggest opening weekend of 2023. The release was unusual as Swift sidestepped the major Hollywood streamers and studios and partnered directly with AMC Theatres to distribute the film. Nolan commended Swift for the business move.
