Everything About Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour Film in Disney+ You Should Know Before Watching It

Taylor Swift, American singer-songwriter, has seen unprecedented success since the debut of her Eras Tour, her ongoing sixth concert consisting of an impressive 152 shows across five continents.

In fact, most of you likely know her from her six sold-out Eras Tour performances in Singapore that spanned over the course of a few days, from 2 March 2024 to 9 March 2024. 

The splendour of her Eras Tour has left waves and ripples across the world, and according to post-concert depression (PCD) suffering fans (including me), they want more.

And more they get.

Disney+ Delivers With The Eras Tour Film

At a lengthy three-and-a-half-hour, Taylor Swift’s concert film on Disneyplus saw even more success, completely obliterating the charts within its first opening weekend.

According to The Walt Disney Company, the concert garnered 4.6 million views and 16.2 million hours on Disneyplus in its opening weekend after making its debut on 14 March 2024.

In case you didn’t know, a view is defined as the film’s total stream time divided by runtime.

The film also grossed nearly S$351.6 million worldwide at the global box office, quickly becoming Disneyplus’ most successful hit music film. It even outperformed Taylor Swift’s other concert 2020 movie ‘Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions.’

Disneyplus’ version features five songs that weren’t included in the first theatrical release of the film: the fan-favourite ‘Cardigan’, and acoustic songs: ‘Death By A Thousand Cuts’, ‘Maroon’, ‘I Can See You’, and ‘You Are In Love’.

For those of you who have no idea what first theatrical release I’m talking about, let me take you on a trip down the memory lane.

How It All Started

For die-hard fans, this isn’t new news. 

Afterall, they’ve already got a taste of what it’s like to experience an Eras Tour concert film: “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023)”. 

This one wasn’t directed by the superstar Taylor Swift though, but rather, creative film director, Sam Wrench. 

This decision was by the superstar Swift herself, who struck an unprecedented distribution agreement with AMC Theatres and Cinemark Theatres for the film after negotiations with the major film studios fell through, according to Wikipedia.

The unexpected film had a budget of USD$10 to USD$20 million and was slated to be released on October 13.

This shock announcement was made by Taylor Swift herself 26 September 2023 on all social media platforms like Twitter/X, Instagram.

Fans were overjoyed to hear this news, seeing that the experience of attending her concert was now going to be shared to the entire world. 

This made experiencing the concert a lot more accessible, and many fans praised Swift for her ingenious thinking; despite the unconventional release strategy, she somehow managed to transcend the unspoken and traditional rules of releasing films to give her fans the opportunity to have the #ErasTour experience as well.

While a concert film in cinemas will likely never be able to fully emulate the jaw-dropping, heart pounding exhilaration of an actual concert performance, Eras Tour (2023) came pretty close.

The film received extremely positive reception worldwide; it was met with significant ticket demand, amassing a record USD$37 million on its first day of pre-sales in the U.S. and over USD$100 million in total global pre-sales, according to Wikipedia.

Subsequently, the Eras Tour became the highest grossing concert film of all time, amassing a remarkable USD$261.7 million worldwide.

It became a global affair, which is unsurprisingly fitting for the global phenomenon, Taylor Swift.

Moreover, the film also received critical acclaim for its stunning demonstration of Taylor Swift’s artistry, musical flair, and showmanship.

For some Swifties out there who weren’t lucky enough to snag a spot in the Ticketmaster queue, or afford a ticket, which were calculated to range from S$108 to S$598, as stated by Ticketmaster, or just couldn’t make it for other reasons, this concert film was a lifesaver.

However, as more fans flocked to their local cinemas with a shared goal in mind, what everyone thought would be a joyous experience would eventually turn out to be… a not so pleasant experience.

Concert Film Reignites Debates About ‘Concert Etiquette’

What sets a concert film about from a normal film?

For the dedicated fans who screamed their lungs out during the theatrical performances in the cinema, nothing, probably.

For the ones who complained about it, everything. 

The debut of the Eras Tour (2023) Concert Film saw the Taylor Swift devoted fan base being split cleanly in half: between those who believed that it was alright to sing and dance passionately in cinemas, and those who believed otherwise, and that the audience ought to keep quiet.

Many fans took to social media to complain about other movie-goers’ lack of etiquette. One such example is in the screenshot on Twitter/X below.

In the video, other movie-goers can be seen waving their flashlights and singing; some fans even left their seats to stand right at the screen. The user cited that this was the “worst screening ever”.

“I hate it here,” they added in a reply below the tweet.

The tweet went viral on Twitter/X; it was viewed 5.4 million times and amassed 22,000 likes, likely from those sharing the same sentiment. 

Of course, this prompted the debate about concert etiquette. Is it really okay to let loose in the cinema, especially since it’s a shared space with other people as well?

A large majority of the internet disagreed with this statement. While dancing or singing in one’s seat was understandable, this level of fervour was unnecessary and would likely ruin the experience for other fans. 

Perhaps this was the debate that urged Taylor Swift to continue the development of the concert film.

It was announced on all her social media platforms on 8 February 2024 that an extended version of the concert film would be released for streaming on Disneyplus.

Kudos to Taylor for the swift (haha) remedy of the situation. Now, fans can experience the concert in the comfort of their own homes.