Taylor Swift dominated the box office in America this past weekend, as her concert film Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour launched as the top movie in the country. The title raked in just under $93 million in ticket sales in its first four days in theaters, making it a resounding success. But just how massive was the concert picture? Well, it didn’t face any real competition, that’s for sure.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour had no issue going right to No. 1 and ruling the box office, as no other title could compete with the concert film. The No. 2 movie this weekend in America was The Exorcist: Believer. The scary title earned another $11 million at the box office this weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. That’s just one-eighth of what Swift’s production managed.
The Exorcist: Believer actually opened earlier than expected, as it moved to avoid competing directly with Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. After the singer announced her release date, several movies changed theirs, with this horror flick being perhaps the highest-profile to change course. Since opening on October 6, the title has earned $45 million at the box office—less than half of what Swift managed in one weekend.
Looking at the top 10 highest-grossing movies this weekend in America, it becomes even clearer that Swift really owned the box office this time around. The combined grosses of the top 10 titles—excluding Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour—is just under $36 million. That’s less than half of what Swift’s concert movie pulled in.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour actually outsold the rest of the top 50 grossing movies in America this past weekend—combined—with room to spare. That list includes quite a few relatively unknown titles, such as Carlos Santana’s documentary Santana ($3,171), Liam Neeson’s Retribution ($3,506), as well as ongoing blockbusters that are still in theaters, like Oppenheimer ($313,755) and Barbie ($475,664).
The $93 million that Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour earned marks the second largest debut in theaters for a movie arriving in October, according to CNBC. The singer’s concert film came close to matching the all-time record, which is still held by Joker. That picture, which opened in October 2019, earned a little more than $96 million in its opening weekend.
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