In one scene in her new film, “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” Taylor Swift, seated in a director’s chair, looks into the camera and declares, “In my industry, attention is affection.”
Swift is explaining the inspiration for her song “Actually Romantic,” which fans have widely speculated is about her strained relationship with Charlie XCX. But Swift’s comment is also a distillation of her business philosophy, which played out in spectacular fashion at movie theaters over the weekend.
“The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” a theatrical, three-day-only event that correlated with the sale date of her new album, pulled in over $50 million globally, according to its distributor, AMC Theatres.
The movie, which Swift wrote and directed, is not a traditional piece of cinema: It consists of behind-the-scenes footage of her making the music video for “The Fate of Ophelia” and brief interviews and lyric videos of the other songs on the album.
“It really is a 90-minute infomercial for Taylor Swift’s new album,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore. “It’s a brilliantly disguised marketing tool to sell more streams of her albums, and fans loved it.”
While narratively slight, Swift’s “Release Party” seemed to more than satisfy its audiences, who gave it an A+ Cinemascore. Swift broke multiple box office rules with the release — she had no trailer and no Thursday preview showtimes, and she announced the film just two weeks before it hit theaters, eschewing the monthslong marketing campaign of a traditional film.
In her Sept. 19 social media post announcing the theatrical event, Swift invited fans to what she described as a “*dazzling* soirée,” adding, “Dancing is optional but very much encouraged.”
The release was “nothing less than a triumph,” AMC Chairman and CEO Adam Aron said in a statement. “It was simply a wonderful gift to her passionate and enthusiastic fans, who got to see, on our giant screens, behind-the-scenes footage and insight into ‘The Life of a Showgirl.’”
Swifities showed up in the masses at theaters around the world, some sporting the friendship bracelets that have become associated with Swift’s brand and others wearing orange to usher in the new “showgirl” era.
“this experience was the closest thing to eras tour magic I’ve felt since 2023,” wrote one Swiftie in a TikTok video documenting the experience at the theater.
Some theaters also shared their enthusiasm over the film experience — and the reaction from their consumers — in social media promotions. Lido Cinemas, which has eight cinemas and a rooftop venue in Hawthorn, Australia, posted a video of several of its employees “warming up for the Swifties.” Picturehouse, a cinema-chain in the U.K., shared a video of three people dressed in typical “showgirl” attire (sparkly jumpsuits and feathered headpieces), writing: “us at the cinema this weekend.”
Swift’s success may have come at the cost of some studios, however, who spent millions marketing their buzzy Oscar contenders, only to have a promotional film take over the box office.
The behind-the-scenes featurette got more people into movie theaters than “Smashing Machine,” the Dwyane Johnson Oscar vehicle from A24, or the second weekend of Warner Bros.’ critically touted Leonardo DiCaprio action movie “One Battle After Another.” It also beat Disney’s re-release of James Cameron’s “Avatar Way of the Water,” and it lured little girls away from the second weekend of Universal’s “Gaby’s Dollhouse: The Movie.”
“Release Party” claimed many of the premium large format screens, like IMAX and Dolby, which attract hard-core cinephiles and drive theatrical release earnings. And while its audience was 80% female, it still peeled off some Swiftie dads, who may have been interested in seeing The Rock’s sports drama.
Even some executives at the studios that Swift beat see the success of “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” as a net positive for their business.
In an era when top movie stars struggle to lure audiences off the couch, Swift reliably delivers her fans to theaters. And as with her previous film, 2023’s “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” which grossed $267 million worldwide, this movie arrived in October, at what is normally a quiet time at the box office between summer and holiday blockbusters.
“Without her business it would have been a really despairing weekend,” said a marketing executive at one studio, who wished to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity around commenting on competitors. “Anything that gets people going out to movies and maybe even expands the definition of what that is is something we should be thankful for.”
