Movie theatres will be teeming with orange glitter and showgirl costumes this weekend as Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl hits both theatres and streaming charts today.
The Official Release of a Showgirl starts screening today at 3 p.m. and will be in theatres for one weekend only.
It’s not quite a movie or a concert film — Swift has dubbed it a “dazzling soiree” in an Instagram post, which she says will feature the music video for the first song off of the new album, The Fate of Ophelia, lyric videos for other tracks and behind-the-scenes footage.
“Think about it as almost like the ultimate streaming party,” said Bryan West, who reports on all things Taylor Swift for USA Today.
But West adds that the album runs about 42 minutes in total, leaving the theatrical release with another 45 minutes for Swift to fill with other content. And what exactly those 45 minutes will bring is the subject of much fan speculation.
“I imagine [that time] is going to dive deeper into the showgirl world. She’ll explain the esthetics, maybe the behind the scenes, maybe shooting the music video, maybe the inspiration that went into these 12 tracks,” West said.
Whatever the film holds, the weekend-long party is expected to top the box office — early estimates project it will earn between $35 and $40 million in ticket sales in the U.S., according to Variety. That means it could push out other films that have been performing well at the box office — like Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another which dominated theatres last weekend — or eclipse new would-be favourites, like the indie wrestling film The Smashing Machine starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
If Swift pulls it off, it will be the second time one of her theatrical releases has debuted at number one. In 2023, enthusiasm for Swift’s Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film propelled the movie to a number one box office spot, with between $95 million and $97 million US worth of tickets sold across North America.
West points out that Swift also has the chance to join a rare crowd of stars who have topped music charts and box office sales at the same time. The first to ever do that was Prince, whose semi-autobiographical film Purple Rain clinched the top box office spot at the same time that the accompanying soundtrack went number one on the Billboard charts in 1984.
A master class in experiential marketing
Swift doesn’t do anything low-key. Only one of her albums hasn’t topped the Billboard 200, and her Eras tour generated over $2 billion US, making it the most commercially successful tour in history.
This theatrical release is no different.
“Fans like to joke that she is the music industry,” said Sydney Urbanek, a culture writer and film critic based in Toronto. “She’s unique in her, you know, particular ability to sell [tickets] and command eyeballs and … mobilize her fan base.”
Urbanek says she’s doing that this time around by creating a sense of “FOMO” (the fear of missing out) around today’s theatrical release. Even though the music video will eventually be released online, Urbanek says fans will be posting about the cinematic experience and analyzing it all immediately, meaning anyone who doesn’t pay to see it in theatres will be late to the party.
Cost of Living10:12Is Taylor Swift the Jeff Bezos of music?
Kevin Evers, an editor with the Harvard Business Review, thinks Swift and Bezos share the same approach to their customers. He speaks to Paul Haavardsrud about his new book, There’s Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift.
This kind of experiential marketing is a big deal right now, according to Ryan Townend, marketing expert and CEO of WJ Agency. Townend says capitalizing on people’s desire to enjoy the music together has been a really smart way Swift has brought her art to fans — especially if she can keep the momentum up following the success of the Eras tour.
“She’s a master when it comes to creating amazing music, but she also creates magical moments,” Townsend told CBC News. “And by releasing through the theatres, she’s bringing her Swifties together to have an amazing time.”
This kind of experience also allows Swift to let fans in on her own life — something she’s done for years that’s earned her a fan base more devout than most, Townend says.
But he’s not sure other artists would be able to copy the dual cinematic and album rollout. Fans have come to expect Swift to experiment with other mediums, he says, but it might not feel authentic if others tried to emulate that same thing.
“I think people have to stay true to who they are authentically and roll out their music the way that’s true to their brand,” Townend said.
And where other pop stars have hit a saturation point, Swift has been able to keep fans hooked over the course of the two decades she’s been making music. West, the Swift reporter, says that her ability to constantly reinvent herself in new eras has kept fans along for the ride.
“Taylor Swift keeps hitting peaks, she keeps evolving,” West said. “And so I think really the opalite sky is the limit when it comes to Taylor Swift, she’s going to just keep going and fans are going to be following her every step of the way.”
