My long, surprisingly quiet Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour experience
Turns out not all Swifties are really in their movie theater era
Film Features The Eras Tour
At 8:27 p.m., three minutes before my opening night screening of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour was set to begin, a grand total of 11 other filmgoers (I counted) filled the seats of Theater 1 at the 34th Street Manhattan AMC. Yes, you read that right. The $100 million-grossing, second-most notorious film event of the year that put Beyoncé in a regular old AMC seat and bumped The Exorcist: Believer out of its rightful Friday the 13th premiere slot was kind of an under-attended snooze-fest.
All the lyrics my friends had dutifully learned were replaced by a single question: uhh … what? As I left the theater three hours later, though, I was able to posit some answers. First, there are obviously far more urgent things happening in the world right now than a Taylor Swift premiere. Also, as of this Wednesday (long after I waited in the virtual AMC queue to buy my tickets), Friday the 13th was technically no longer even the actual premiere of the film. In a rare foregoing of her usual obsession with numerology, specifically the number 13, Taylor and her team decided to release the film a full day early, likely to the delight of both ravenous fans as well as Taylor Swift’s checking account.
More likely though, at least in what would become my experience, it was because people just didn’t really want to go. When the film was announced on August 31, just weeks after the SoFi stadium shows at which it was shot, Eras-mania was at an all time high. It was still warm enough to wear rhinestoned Lover costumes from cities past. Surprise songs were still being ranked and debated. Society was still months away from thinking the phrase “ketchup and seemingly ranch” referred to anything but condiments. Now, long after the salt air has all blown away, the prospect of sitting in a kind of small theater for three whole hours to watch something you’ve likely already seen either live or on social media is more than a little daunting. To borrow Taylor’s words, we really did take the moment and taste it … while it was happening. Now, the after-taste is just a little bit sour.
Let me back up a bit. If you had asked me my opinion on Taylor Swift before July 2020, I probably would have answered with a noncommittal shrug. I liked her well enough, but I certainly didn’t know my “Cruel Summer”s from my “New Year’s Day”s. I know, I know. I’m a band-wagoner. But while I became a Swift-convert listening to folklore for the first time, I don’t think I really became a Swiftie until this summer.
Not once did I consider fighting in what has now been deemed The Great Ticketmaster War when it all went down almost a year ago today. I regretted that decision the minute the first of many TikTok clips began pouring out of Glendale, Arizona. Just from one night’s worth of shaky videos and screaming fans, it was abundantly clear that this would be the event of the summer, if not 2023 as a whole. I, along with countless celebrities and what felt like the rest of the world, absorbed livestream after livestream, tracked surprise songs, memorized the set list, and learned the chants, all seemingly through osmosis. I talked with friends about what we would have worn had we been lucky/smart enough to try to score tickets. I commented some version of “omg so jealous” on numerous Instagram posts. I explained what a Scooter Braun was to my dad.
By the time the L.A. shows—the last on the (first) U.S. leg of the tour—rolled around, I had seen every song, every jumpsuit, and every transition. But I’d never traded friendship bracelets, shouted “let’s go, bitch” or participated in the fan fervor that made this tour—and Taylor herself—feel so monumental.
That, at least in my mind, is what this movie was for. Concert tickets are almost impossible to get a hold of these days, even for smaller acts. Audience etiquette is at an all time nadir. A movie theater is more accessible, less intimidating, and certainly more affordable. (Tickets to Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour cost $19.89, of course.) If Barbenheimer showed us that a night at the theater can be an event, the Eras film, and Beyoncé’s upcoming Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé, were supposed to prove that it can also be a performance … or at least, almost as good as one.
I was on board. I was ready and excited, per Taylor’s own ruling, to attend a far lower-cost event where “Eras attire, friendship bracelets, singing and dancing [were] encouraged.” But after tonight, I’m more convinced than ever that a movie theater should be for just that: movies. That’s not to say the film itself was bad. Far from it. In many ways, it did everything a concert film was supposed to do. It captured the spectacle, and more importantly, the joy of shared experience that makes a good tour so powerful. But seeing all those weeping fans onscreen in a silent, mostly empty theater with not even an AMC-branded friendship bracelet in sight rang especially hollow. Customized, pandering previews for Mean Girls: The Musical and Trolls Band Together with catchphrases like “Hey Swifties: Get ready for your next musical celebration” didn’t help. As a fan, the film didn’t feel “all because of you and for you,” in the words of an end-credit dedication screen; it felt sold to me.
Of course, this was only one experience. While no one was in costume in my theater, I did take a pee break halfway through, which revealed an entirely different crowd from an earlier screening that had just let out. (By the way, even though a few songs have been cut, the film is still almost three hours long, so maybe plan accordingly in that regard.) In the other audience, there was more pink, more rhinestones, more souvenir popcorn buckets, and at least two limited edition folklore cardigans, so the vibe might have been totally different. You may be reading this right now in a folklore cardigan of your own, throat hoarse from screaming along to all your favorite songs, thinking “this writer is the maddest woman I’ve ever seen.” I sincerely hope you are. As someone in active mourning over the current inaccessibility of live music, I really, genuinely want this trend to work out. Maybe Beyoncé is the answer. Maybe Trolls Band Together really will be the musical celebration the Eras tour wasn’t, at least for me. Who knows.
What I do know is that right before the credits rolled on a very long and very quiet three hours, it felt to me like something had ended. This rare cultural event that brought genuine joy through the freedom to laugh, scream, cry, and connect—even for people like me who didn’t go to a single show—really was what it was because of the fans. Taylor Swift is an undeniably singular performer at the absolute top of her game, as the movie proves over and over and over again. But in the quiet vacuum of the 34th Street AMC, I can’t think of a single moment of the film that made me as happy as an end-credits montage of fan costumes, signs, and general excitement (along with a fun “Errors Tour” blooper or two), set against the Speak Now anthem, “Long Live.” Those are the moments I want to remember.
32 Comments
My question would be: When does Taylor Swift run for public office?
Remember how everyone hated TM for a hot minute and then nothing happened to them at all and they just keep doing business they way they always do? I looked for tickets to Stevie Nicks last week: The scalpers that TM owns/works with were selling their tix through TM’s page for less than the actual TM tickets.
That’s a shame. The showing I saw Saturday night had hundreds of people (it’s an old-time full-size theater) having a great time, and the huge energy was wonderful to experience.
My theatre was full, everyone was standing, singing, dancing, crying, and we all traded friendship bracelets. I think this author went to the wrong showing and I’m sorry for her but her this article does not encompass the experience.
She literally admits that when she notices the people in the other theater were going all in for the experience. I’m guessing you have to do an earlier screening to get younger people with the energy.
The tour itself was massively attended by mother/daughter groups, and I don’t know too many who would take their kids to a Manhattan midnight movie, getting home after 3AM.
What did I miss? “
At 8:27 p.m., three minutes before my opening night screening of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour was set to begin”
doesn’t sound like a midnight show to me. Granted, I still don’t get the point of this article…
It’s very likely you simply ended up in one of the showtimes that were added later, most of the ones that went on sale weeks ago were full.
And the ones that went up earlier were also more likely to be bought up by the “diehards” who wanted to recreate the concert atmosphere.
Sounded a lot like my Sunday 11:15am crowd. Even still, for some reason I expected more juice from the audience …
It’s entirely a YMMV situation. My wife and I were at a 9:30 showing Friday night and while the theater wasn’t entirely rowdy there was certainly a younger group in the lower section that was getting in to the songs and dancing, and you could tell that because they were…people around them felt more encouraged to get in to it too.On our side of the theater we weren’t as rowdy…but you could tell the Swifties were in force because they all know the cheers/claps etc from the tour.Sorry if you didn’t get the experience you were expecting, but it’s absolutely a situation where you get out what you put in. There was no expectation that everyone would be rowdy, but the atmosphere was one where you would absolutely be allowed to do so if you wanted.
My wife and daughter went and the theater was nearly empty.
I was at this same theater at the 7:00 showing. What was sold out on line was about 75-80% full when all was said and done, and our theater was engaged but also not as rowdy as some of the others I’ve seen online. It’s important to note that the city was on High Alert from the media and NYC officials, which may have also worked in tandem with the surprise earlier release to minimize some of the energy. I too expected and hoped for more of an “event” feel (I did fight in the Great Ticketmaster war but lost) but in reality I think I got the best of all worlds – a more chill event feel where people were kind and respectful to one another and we chanted and danced in our seats but still heard Taylor and got to see all the details we didn’t get to on Instagram live. It really did depend on which theater you happened to end up in.
My guess is that, for larger cities where the tour actually stopped, shows may be sparsely attended. I’m in a town where the closest show was four hours away, and looking from the local theatre’s website, they were selling out most screenings. There’s also the likely probability that (as others have noted) you were at a showing that had just been added.
Plus a midnight showing of a nearly three-hour film that from the article sounds like it was showing on multiple screens many have just not been that appealing, especially if it wasn’t actually opening night.
Writer goes sees movie,and there aren’t a lot of people at screening. Sure, that’s worth an article? I noticed the weekend and night ones were filling up fast so me and my friend got us tickets for this Thursday afternoon.
This is an impressive amount of words for a clearly atypical experience.“No one wanted to see it!” except for all the other people who shelled out a collective $96 million this weekend.
The photo of Swift and co. at the premier: That has to be the whitest laughter I have ever seen.
While I’m currently personally in an “off” cycle of my in-and-off mild Taylor Swift fandom due to sheer overexposure, this kind of personalized, thoughtful coverage of a piece of pop-cultire is the kind of writing I miss from the AV Club of yore. Thank you for writing this Emma, and hoping for more of this kind thoughtful, voice-driven writing from AV Club in future.
I remember seeing a bunch of TikTok videos of full theaters with groups of girls dancing in a circle next to the movie screen. Hell, I saw a video where Taylor Lautner was in attendance. I don’t know what happened to your theater but I think you’re probably more in the minority than the majority.
I’m a 58 year old male who saw the movie and rather enjoyed it. Was totally unfamiliar with her music and refuse to pay big bucks for any concert. Seen enough in my lifetime already.
Has she crossed $4 billion for the year yet?
Someone in the Kinjaverse referred to that pose that’s featured on the posters as “Taylor hot-mic-ing a fart”, and now I can’t un-see it.
Based on the differing experience between my daughter and her friends, it could also depend on the theater and it’s amenities. My wife took
our daughter – 13 years-old, and bought a cardigan and some disco ball earrings for
the occasion – to the locally owned theater in town. No IMAX, no Dolby THX, or whatever sound. I bought tickets the afternoon before for the first showing on Friday, it was sparely attended by mostly moms and younger girls who were running around and barely paying attention. Daughter enjoyed the movie, but came back rather unimpressed by the whole experience.Her friends, who bought tickets to the near by AMC theater, with all the IMAX/Dolby/THX/whatever amenities, bought their tickets well in advance of what ended up being sold out shows, and the atmosphere sounded more a kin to the BlackPink concert she went to in August; lots of kids her age dressed up and singing and dancing to the music.
Why did you go to a 9 pm showing that wouldn’t get out till midnight and you were surprised it wasn’t full like the 7 pm showings? You’re just not very intelligent, and instead of recognizing that, you wrote an entire article based on your poor decision. I actually used the app ahead of time to see that some theaters were packed while others were empty because of late showtimes or a competing larger screen such as the imax screens which are only available this weekend. I’m not even a swiftie, just a casual fan curious. But dang, you really wrote a whole article about how you’re just not very smart, and your editor never pointed that out. Yikes. The state of journalism ladies and gentleman.
I didn’t buy tickets right away when it was announced so when I did go to buy tickets, everything close by was sold out. I ended up buying tickets for a random suburb 45 minutes away. I went at 6:30 on Saturday and it was packed, it was a dance party, singalong, people were out of their seats and at one point all ran down to the floor of the theater and were hanging out. I guess from that one experience I could write an article coming to the totally opposite conclusion as you.
with catchphrases like “Hey Swifties: Get ready for your next musical celebration” didn’t help.Why not? You’re all Level 7 Susceptible sheep. You’re going to see Trolls now and you know it Emma.
i’m planning to go to a late screening just so i avoid all the hysterical young fans. i want to be blazed and watching this without the squealing, thank you.
I went Saturday evening in Metro Detroit, having also gone to night 2 of her tour stop in Detroit with my wife and our friends back in June. I can tell you that the theatre was mainly full and there were a TON of mothers with tween girls dancing and singing throughout. I definitely had fun and didn’t feel burned out. 🤷♂️
I’m not a big Taylor Swift fan at all. I really enjoyed her latest ‘Midnights’ album, though, and went to the concert movie with my partner. We decided to both treat it like we were *at* a Taylor Swift concert, with aisle seats, and lots of trips to the concession for drinks. My partner took a gummy (incredibly legal in Toronto, where we live). And we had a ton of fun!Our concert was similarly the less attended of the two at the theatre, with maybe twenty people in the audience. I peaked my head into the other theatre, and I can say whole-heartedly that we picked the right one. People were dancing, and crying, and above all, the lights were on! The whole show was played with the lights on. And it was smelly, ahah. No slights against the young people – they seemed to be having a lot of fun.So I can safely say that we enjoyed our slice of Taylor Swift… on our terms.
Here’s my long obligatory response to a TaySwif article designed to drive traffic.YAWWWWWWNNN
It’s interesting to read about the underwhelming nature of seeing something like this without a big crowd, but I think it’s a bit of a reach to over-extrapolate this experience into a broader one about how people aren’t interested in seeing the movie. We have documented evidence of widespread sold-out and raucous showings of the movie, and it’s been far from a flop at the box office overall.Anecdotally, the screening I saw on the opening Friday was a very crowded and lively event (mostly sold out with young girls and their mothers, with a reasonable number of younger women too). As a straight and pretty square adult man who was going to see it with my wife for her birthday, I was a bit nervous about the reports of audience participation, but in the end I do think they made the experience more fun, and I’m glad I saw it like that instead of in a quiet theatre. The music was loud enough that the crowd didn’t drown it out and the screen was big enough that the people dancing at the front weren’t physically able to get in the way. The article does at least make a good point that it’s the fandom that’s almost as entertaining as the woman herself.