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“If you’re up on Taylor Swift concerts there are friendship bracelets and I received a bunch of them being there, but I wanted to give Taylor Swift one with my number on it,” he said during a July episode of his podcast, New Heights, which he hosts alongside his brother, fellow NFL player Jason Kelce.
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Mum’s the word for Travis Kelce. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end kept tight-lipped and dodged questions about Taylor Swift during an NFL+ interview after he previously admitted to trying to give her his phone number on a friendship bracelet during her The Eras Tour stop in Kansas City, Missouri, earlier this year.
“The only thing anyone really wants to talk about is Taylor Swift,” host Andrew Siciliano asked Travis in a clip shared on TikTok. “Did you really have your phone number ready on a friendship bracelet to give to Taylor?”
Travis kept it coy in his response, playful replying: “I said what I said. And I meant what I said when I said it. And you know what, it is what it is. I’m not gonna talk about my personal life.”
Pointing a finger at the camera, he continued, “I know what you writers wanna hear, and you wanna hear more about that and I’m not gonna give you anything.”
The interviewer pressed on, “Has she reached out?” to which Travis jokingly ended the interview.
“And that’s gonna wrap it up here,” he said.
@andrew.siciliano New romantics for Taylor Swift? #taylorswift #traviskelce #swifties #newromantics
The non-comments come after a source told ET on Tuesday that the two are not officially dating.
ET has reached out to reps for both Taylor and Travis for comment on a recent report that they are, however, hanging out.
Meanwhile, a source tells ET, “Travis has been into Taylor for a while and definitely has a crush on her. He is a simple guy that is very funny, charismatic, chill, and loves playing football.”
Back in July on his podcast, “New Heights”, Travis told his brother, Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, that he attempted to shoot his shot with Taylor during a performance at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium.
“I was disappointed that she doesn’t talk before or after her shows because she has to save her voice for the 44 songs that she sings,” the 33-year-old NFL pro shared. “So I was a little butthurt I didn’t get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her.”
Explaining the bracelet phenomena at Taylor’s shows to his 35-year-old brother, Travis continued, “If you’re up on Taylor Swift concerts, there are friendship bracelets. I received a bunch of them being there, but I wanted to give Taylor Swift one with my number on it.”
That didn’t exactly work out, as Travis noted, “She doesn’t meet anybody, or at least she didn’t want to meet me, so I took it personal.”
The 33-year-old singer is presumably single at the moment, but was in a relationship with 32-year-old British actor Joe Alwyn for six years. In April, ET exclusively revealed that the two had called it quits. She then briefly dated 34-year-old British singer Matty Healy from The 1975 but they went their separate ways in June.
More From ET:
Taylor Swift’s History-Making 9 MTV VMAs Wins: Artist, Video, Director of the Year and More
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce Are Not Officially Dating, Source Says
Travis Kelce Reveals the Surprising Way He Tried to Give Taylor Swift His Number
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Melissa Romualdi
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Having already shattered Marvel movie records by raking in twenty-six million dollars in presale tickets alone, it’s evident that audience members are experiencing the same lack of a moral dilemma as Taylor Swift when it comes to the Eras Tour film. On Swift’s side of things, she wants to add to her already burgeoning bank account under the pretense of “giving the fans what they want.” And on the fans’ side of things, many want to see the concert that they likely couldn’t get tickets to. Whether for financial reasons or Ticketmaster fuckery/simply not being able to beat everyone else to the punch before tickets sold out. So sure, theoretically, everyone “wins,” right? Save for the SAG-AFTRA and WGA members (the DGA remains conveniently off to the sidelines in this matter) who have been on strike since mid-summer.
For those wondering how Swift was able to sidestep the limitations set forth by the strike, it’s because 1) she falls under the category of being an “independent production” and 2) she secured an interim agreement with SAG-AFTRA by agreeing to all the demands they’ve made of the studios. This includes giving the union members higher pay, better residuals for streaming and increased breaks during production. Some would ask, “What’s so wrong with that? It actually makes her sound like a saint.” Plus, it plays to the union’s belief that by increasing independent competition against the studios via these interim agreements, it will take enough money out of their bag for people like Disney’s Bob Iger (the biggest villain to the actors and writers in this ever-escalating melodrama), Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav and Amazon’s Jennifer Salke to quake in their very expensive designer boots. That desired result, unfortunately, doesn’t seem all that probable.
For, not only does such a maneuver prove to studio heads like Iger that it really is just a matter of “starving them out” based on how desperate they are to step across picket lines when it suits them, but it also shows that there is no such thing as “complete solidarity” when the carrot of cold, hard cash is dangled (and Swift has plenty of it to dangle should she want to release any other project as well). Because while some might be able to secure the financial benefit of an interim agreement, many others have not and will not be able to as the strike continues. This, in turn, has the potential for increasing the chance of infighting and petty squabbles over who is truly committed to outlasting the studios as the strike wears on, despite SAG-AFTRA’s encouragement of entering into interim agreements. For, in their estimation, the more productions that can go forward without studio participation, the more that “competitive pressure” will be placed on studios to “yield” to the unions.
This skewed perception is perhaps a symptom of being directly responsible for creating “Hollywood endings” for a living. In real life, however, it’s never going to happen. The studios know their chance for greater profits off the potential that AI can give them (a scenario best elucidated by the first episode of Black Mirror’s sixth season, “Joan Is Awful”) is too “once-in-a-lifetime” to ignore. For anytime a “new frontier” is unearthed, that’s when people who get in on the ground floor are able to obtain what will later be called generational wealth. It happened with the railroad, it happened with the Gold Rush, it happened with the internet and it’s sure to happen with AI. The common denominator in every new enterprise being to hoard the resources. A task that the studio system has long been adept at despite its many peaks and valleys over the decades.
This includes the joint union strike that also occurred sixty-three years ago (with current strikers naturally looking to it as a precedent for guidance in this moment). Just as is the case now, it started with the WGA halting their work on January 16, 1960. And, just as is the case now, one of the main catalysts was a nefarious new medium that was stealing from their pockets: TV. So it was that among their top demands (apart from the studios agreeing to pay into the guild’s health and retirement plans) was increased residuals for content that was shown on television. Decades later, that now extends to rightly wanting increased residuals for content distributed through streaming. In 1960, it only took SAG (who wouldn’t join with AFTRA until 2012) about three more months to commence their own strike on March 7th. And yet, although they started later, their strike ended sooner, reaching an agreement with studios by April 18, 1960.
For the writers, however, things were not so easily resolved, with their strike lasting until June 12th. This time around, it might not be so easy for actors to reach an agreement, considering all of their likenesses being profited from ad infinitum is on the line. That’s no matter to Swift, though, as she has already suffered through her issues with ownership over what’s hers. In that regard, it seems odd that she doesn’t have more empathy for the delicacy of this strike, believing instead that she’s swooping in like some kind of savior to offer work to a select few people in the industry. And yes, that’s how many others see the act of releasing the Eras Tour at a time like this as well, heralding her as the “disruptor” of the year (of course, Glass Onion was sure to clarify that so-called disruptors [usually millionaires and billionaires with the means to disrupt] are the most conformist of all). Even though what she really disrupted was the work of many other bona fide actors who had projects slated to come out on or around the same day (October 13th).
This extended not only to Jason Blum’s The Exorcist: The Believer, but also to Meg Ryan’s What Happens Later and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, the latter of which will undoubtedly face competition with Swift for space on IMAX screens. It’s not difficult to guess which “auteur” will win out. For one should never underestimate the power of the Swifties. Alas, it’s a shame their power has to affect someone as genuinely passionate about the moviegoing experience as Scorsese.
Considering the political clout Swift has in just about all matters (so much that politicians actually ask her to do things in order to effect change), it’s a missed opportunity for her to tiptoe around the limitations of the strike rather than honor them fully. Do something to actually help SAG-AFTRA and WGA win “the great war” against the studios by showing a true sign of her uncompromised solidarity. Releasing a movie during a peak stalemate in negotiations hardly does that. It instead desensitizes audiences to the importance of the strikes and comes across as an indication to studios that people are growing so impatient about wanting to “release their shit”—while audiences remain equally as hungry to swallow said shit—that all the CEOs have to do is keep waiting a little longer to “starve them out until they have to sell their apartments.” At which point, the desperation will take hold strongly enough to make the guilds more amenable to concessions. For this is hardly the “pleasant” strike of 1960, or even 1981, 1988 and 2007-08. That much was made clear when the writers were practically out for blood upon learning that Drew Barrymore would restart production of The Drew Barrymore Show without writers. Unlike Swift, however, her decision was not met with praise or being called a “disruptor,” even though she, too, did not violate any strike rules in doing so.
The backlash against Barrymore’s choice to go forward with her show was so strong, in fact, that she was quickly dropped as the host of the National Book Awards. After all, its “dedicat[ion] to celebrating the power of literature, and the incomparable contributions of writers to our culture” certainly doesn’t seem to align with Barrymore’s views at this time. Of course, if Taylor Swift had done something similar, many would have likely been quicker to find a way to justify her actions and/or accept her inevitable apology. Such is the primary perk of being America’s sweetheart. And the primary bane of being a lowly guild member. Because, obviously, after the “bang” of Swift’s film in theaters this fall, there’s going to be a big bust afterward. Which will only corroborate the major studios’ conviction that Swift is an anomaly in the landscape of interim agreements. That’s when it will become painfully clear to the guilds that winter is very much coming. Not for Swift though…
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Genna Rivieccio
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Gannett, America’s largest newspaper chain, is looking to hire two full-time reporters with strikingly specific beats. One needs to be a connoisseur of “Lemonade;” the other should be an expert in all things “1989.”
The media company wants one journalist who will exclusively “chronicle the music, fashion, cultural and economic influence of Beyoncé” and another who will “capture the music and cultural impact of Taylor Swift” for USA Today and The Tennessean. Both newspapers are part of the USA Today Network, which is owned by Gannett. The job openings were announced this week.
The ideal candidate for the “Beyoncé Knowles-Carter Reporter” position is “an energetic and enterprising writer” who can capture Beyoncé’s effect “not only on the many industries in which she operates, but also on society,” the posting says.
Beyoncé is currently on her Renaissance World Tour, which, by some estimates, will rake in a total of $2 billion. The 32-time Grammy Award winner’s tour is due to end on October 1 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Kevin Mazur
Similarly, the company wants a Swiftie who is “an energetic writer, photographer and social media pro who can quench an undeniable thirst for all things Taylor Swift.”
The opening comes as Swift is also in the midst of a wildly successful world tour. Her Eras Tour has grossed hundreds of millions of dollars and is credited with boosting local economies. Swift and AMC Theaters are also releasing a film about the tour in October. All the while, she continues to rack up awards and break music records.
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin
Both jobs require a willingness to travel extensively and a journalist with a voice “but not a bias,” according to the postings. In addition to a resume, applicants will have to submit a video cover letter.
As news of the Swift reporter job spread Tuesday, Gannett came under criticism for its decision to offer such specific positions after announcing hundreds of layoffs and widespread cutbacks last year. The company eliminated 20% of its journalism jobs between 2021 and 2022, according to the Boston Business Journal.
Prior to the company’s Beyoncé job listing, Kristin Roberts, Gannett Media’s chief content officer, said in a statement to CBS News that USA Today Network is “committed to serving our communities across America with journalism that is essential to millions of readers, viewers and listeners. And that includes providing our audience with content they crave.”
“As Taylor Swift’s fanbase has grown to unprecedented heights, so has the influence of her music and growing legacy – not only on the industry but on our culture. She is shaping a generation,” Roberts said.
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My instant reaction: Wait… it’s the VMAs tonight? My second thought: Are the VMAs still a thing?
When I think of the VMAs, I think of vintage VMA ceremonies — from the golden age of chaotic television when they first premiered in 1980 to the infamous Taylor Swift x Kanye beef in 2009 and the Miley Cyrus twerking fiasco in 2013.
But for the past few years, the VMAs have happened not with a bang but with a whimper. Maybe it’s because COVID took the ceremony online and they, like most award shows, haven’t fully recovered.
But this year, the VMAs have solidified themselves as the award show to watch again. Despite meager attendance and lackluster performances in years past, this year’s event brought its best. All the big names showed up in their award show best: Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, and even a mini-reunion of NSYNC. The affair was star-studded, the fashion rivaled the Met Gala, and the entertainment was top-tier.
If you missed it — like I almost did — here’s what happened at the 2023 MTV VMAs:
Like VMA shows of yore, this year’s performances were some for the books. All the hottest acts played all their best songs with all the works — from stunning choreo to studded gowns.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFNt5OvGt98Olivia Rodrigo – “vampire” / “get him back” | 2023 VMAswww.youtube.com
Mostly, Taylor Swift. But here were the rest of the winners:
VIDEO OF THE YEAR: Taylor Swift – “Anti-Hero”
ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Taylor Swift
SONG OF THE YEAR: Taylor Swift – “Anti-Hero”
BEST NEW ARTIST: Ice Spice
SHOW OF THE SUMMER (Social Category): Taylor Swift
GROUP OF THE YEAR (Social Category): BLACKPINK
SONG OF THE SUMMER (Social Category): Jung Kook ft. Latto – “Seven”
ALBUM OF THE YEAR (Social Category): Taylor Swift – Midnights
PUSH PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR: April 2023: TOMORROW X TOGETHER – “Sugar Rush Ride”
BEST COLLABORATION: KAROL G, Shakira – “TQG”
BEST POP: Taylor Swift – “Anti-Hero”
BEST HIP-HOP: Nicki Minaj – “Super Freaky Girl”
BEST R&B: SZA – “Shirt”
BEST ALTERNATIVE: Lana Del Rey ft. Jon Batiste – “Candy Necklace”
BEST ROCK: Måneskin – “THE LONELIEST”
BEST LATIN: Anitta – “Funk Rave”
BEST K-POP: Stray Kids – “S-Class”
BEST AFROBEATS: Rema & Selena Gomez – “Calm Down”
VIDEO FOR GOOD: Dove Cameron – “Breakfast”
BEST DIRECTION: Taylor Swift — “Anti-Hero” — Directed by Taylor Swift
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Taylor Swift — “Anti-Hero” — Cinematography by Rina Yang
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Taylor Swift — “Anti-Hero” — Visual Effects by Parliament
BEST CHOREOGRAPH: BLACKPINK — “Pink Venom” — Choreography by Kiel Tutin, Sienna Lalau, Lee Jung (YGX), Taryn Cheng (YGX)
BEST ART DIRECTION: Doja Cat — “Attention” — Art Direction by Spencer Graves
BEST EDITING: Olivia Rodrigo — “vampire” — Edited by Sofia Kerpan and David Checel
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LKC
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If you tuned into the 2023 MTV VMAs, you likely watched Lance Bass of *NSYNC hand Taylor Swift a stack of friendship bracelets as she accepted the award for best pop — a nod to the phenomenon happening at her Eras Tour shows among fans. The moment drummed up a lot of buzz, not least because Swift gushed over how much she looked up to the group growing up: “I had your dolls,” she told them after accepting the bracelets in near disbelief.
It might’ve been hard for viewers to get a good glimpse of the glimmering bracelets, but they were made by the brand Little Words Project — and they were hand-beaded the night before.
“When Lance Bass wants to hand out bracelets, you make it happen.”
Little Words Project (LWP) is a Latina-founded brand started by Adriana Carrig, whose motto of “just be nice” has translated to wearable and shareable bracelets featuring words of affirmation. Swift’s stack at the VMAs consisted of bracelets with the words “Lover,” “NSYNC,” and “FTGWHE,” a reference to the *NSYNC track “For the Girl Who Has Everything.”
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According to Mariah Grippo, director of brand experience for LWP, Bass also had bracelets made for the rest of the boy-band members — Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone, and Chris Kirkpatrick — to wear while presenting the award. “Dirty Pop,” “NSYNC,” and “10.01.95” (the inception date of the group) were among those Lance gifted to his fellow bandmates, who reunited during the show for the first time in 10 years.
Grippo shared that she was in talks with Bass’s team the weekend before the show, trying to figure out a way to spread kindness and share bracelets with whoever the ultimate winner would be. The LWP team worked through the wee hours of the night before the VMAs to handmake each bracelet that would potentially be going to any one of the best pop nominees, including Olivia Rodrigo, Miley Cyrus, and more.
“Everyone’s in their friendship-bracelet era right now.”
“We had so much fun beading these while blasting *NSYNC music all night,” Grippo said, adding that she and her team hadn’t handmade the bracelets in years (they have an entire team dedicated to that now, as the company has grown). “But when Lance Bass wants to hand out bracelets, you make it happen.”
So when the night came and Swift won, the rest of the LWP team hoped Bass would make giving the bracelets to the pop star “a moment.” And to their delight, it indeed was a moment worthy of headlines and social media adoration.
“Lance has handed out our bracelets before at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour,” Grippo added. “He believes in our mission of spreading kindness and wanted to specifically work with LWP on this” for the VMAs. (Bass’s reps did not immediately respond to POPSUGAR’s request for comment.)
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Given the popularity of the Eras Tour tradition of handing out bracelets, as well as this latest exchange, we can only imagine Little Words Project will have many more customers lining up to create their own. The brand is available in stores like Target and Nordstrom, as well as on its website, where you can customize bracelets for a personalized stack.
“We pride ourselves on being the original friendship bracelet,” Grippo said, “and everyone’s in their friendship-bracelet era right now.”
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Ali Faccenda
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Just one day after announcing they’re on the hunt for a reporter to cover all things Taylor Swift, America’s largest newspaper chain has now posted another niche reporting job, covering none other than Beyoncé.
According to the job listings, each writer will work principally for the Tennessean newspaper and USA Today, but their content will be distributed across the entire Gannett news chain.
Both Swift and Beyoncé have major world tours underway. Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour is set to end next month, while Swift’s Eras Tour will run through the end of 2024.
And while it’s not rare for newspaper chains to hire entertainment critics and music reporters, it’s not often that a reporter is assigned to cover a single artist.
However, Beyoncé and Swift both hold a huge amount of cultural and economic sway and their fans – the Beyhive and Swifties, respectively – are known to financially bolster entire cities when the performers come to town.
“At this point, Taylor Swift is basically her own economy,” one Vanity Fair writer put it.
The impact of her tour has been felt in every city she has stopped at, selling out stadiums, gracing fans with a 44-song set list spanning her nearly two-decade-long career and injecting millions of dollars into local economies with the gravity of her star power.
In a Federal Reserve report published in July, the agency found that “May was the strongest month for hotel revenue in Philadelphia since the onset of the pandemic, in large part due to an influx of guests for the Taylor Swift concerts in the city.”
Performing just two shows in Colorado led to a US$140-million boost to the state’s GDP for the year, according to a report from the Common Sense Institute.
“The totality of Taylor Swift’s U.S. tour could generate $4.6 billion in total consumer spending, larger than the GDP of 35 countries,” the report states.
The qualifications for each Gannett job read the same, and each listing invites applicants with “a voice – but not a bias” to throw their resumes into the ring. The hire will be expected to report not just on the details and highlights of each singer’s tours, but also on their fanbase, their impact on the worlds of music and business, as well as their cultural relevance.
Each job requires the reporter to have a willingness to travel extensively, too.
And while the listings have excited many fans and budding journalists, there’s also been a fair share of blowback, with many pointing to Gannett’s extensive layoffs in recent years, which included shedding six per cent of its news division last December.
— with files from Global News’ Kathryn Mannie
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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Michelle Butterfield
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Selena Gomez has been in the public eye since 2002, when she was a teeny-tiny “and Friends” on Barney and Friends. She later starred on the Disney Channel show The Wizards of Waverly Place, beginning in 2007. And, like magic, she seems to have managed to have made it through the last two decades-plus with her sense of humor intact. Case in point: A photo she posted of herself and pal Taylor Swift at Tuesday’s MTV Video Music Awards.
“She looks stunning, I look constipated,” she wrote on her Instagram Stories alongside a photo of the two smiling at each other. “Typical.”
Granted, Gomez, who took home the Moonman for Best Afrobeats for “Calm Down,” her collaboration with Rema, does sport the “smiling at my friend” equivalent of being caught mid-sneeze in the shot, sure. But it’s a cute mid-sneeze, made all the cuter by her self-deprecation.
Swift, who swept the awards and took eight of the 10 categories her work was nominated in, including Artist of the Year, Video of the Year, and Song of the Year (seems like “Anti-Hero” turned her into a hero after all), was visibly delighted for Gomez during the awards, blowing kisses when her friend took the stage to accept her own statue.
Gomez also seemed to take a stance on her Instagram Stories Tuesday night, sprinkling in a text-only slide amid the celebrations of her win and constipation face: “I will never be a meme again,” she posted. “I’d rather sit still than be dragged for being myself. Much love.”
Gomez has been keeping busy in various arenas, starring in the third season of Only Murders in the Building on Hulu, as well as releasing her new single, “Single Soon.” It’s a wonder she even has time to make jokes about her own facial expressions.
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Kase Wickman
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Taylor Swift performs in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 30, 2023, during her Eras tour.
Taylor Hill/tas23 | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Taylor Swift is providing a gold rush for the hotel industry.
The “Cruel Summer” singer’s attention-grabbing “Eras” tour has pushed up revenue for hotels in cities across the U.S., according to data from investment firm Bernstein. And the so-called Swift-lift could be seen around the globe as the tour goes international.
“This has been a notable boost to the hotel industry,” Bernstein analyst Richard Clarke wrote in a note to clients Friday, using the term “Swiftonomics.”
Average revenue generated per room was more than 4 percentage points above the national benchmark in U.S. states during the months of Swift’s visits, Bernstein data shows. These states saw revenue per room up about 7% on average in the months of her stops compared with the same periods a year prior. (Revenue generated per room is calculated by dividing the total hotel revenue by number of available rooms, regardless of whether they were occupied.)
Much of the revenue jump can be attributed to higher prices for rooms, Clarke said, but the number of bookings also improved in many cases. In the most extreme example, Nashville saw hotel occupancy rise more than 30% and room rates increase more than 50% on concert nights. Revenue per room more than doubled the weekend Swift was in town.
Swift’s aid also buoyed U.S. hotels amid a boom among Americans in international tourism, Clarke noted. But he said other countries will have their chance at feeling the Swift-induced bump given the tour has an international leg.
Meanwhile, Bernstein found a relatively muted — though still notable — impact on hotels from Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” tour.
Bernstein’s analysis follows months of anecdotal reports about the economic boost from the tours, as well as other popular culture events this summer. The concerts have caught the attention of Wall Street and the Federal Reserve, which specifically noted high hotel bookings during Swift’s stop in Philadelphia.
“Despite the slowing recovery in tourism in the region overall, one contact highlighted that May was the strongest month for hotel revenue in Philadelphia since the onset of the pandemic,” Fed officials wrote in the July beige book, which summarizes economic activity. That’s “in large part due to an influx of guests for the Taylor Swift concerts in the city.”
Indeed, Clarke said occupancy was 11% higher in Philadelphia during the nights of Swift’s tour, while revenue per available room was up 59% on average.
Swift announced last week that a filmed version of her tour would premiere in theaters in October.
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New York
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Taylor Swift’s fans know the greatest films of all time were never made, but that could be called into question come October 13, when her Eras Tour concert movie is set for release in North America.
The bigger question might be: Why did Swift decide to release her highly anticipated film in theaters over a streaming service?
Already, the film has reached notable milestones. It has broken records for single-day advance ticket sales revenue with $26 million of tickets sold on August 31, according to AMC Theaters, blowing past previous record-holder “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”
But Swift’s latest film is a pivot from recent years, when she released her concert films and documentaries on streaming services. Experts say that choosing movie theaters for the Eras Tour film’s debut over the small screen is a move fitting of both Swift’s business acumen and relationship with her fans.
Swift’s previous documentaries, “Miss Americana” and “Taylor Swift Reputation Stadium Tour” are on Netflix, while “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions” is available on Disney+. “Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless” aired on The Hub, since re-branded as Discovery Family. “The 1989 World Tour Live” was released on Apple Music. Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company, also owns the Discovery network.
Unlike her previous concerts, the Eras Tour has become a cultural phenomenon. Many fans dress up in themed outfits to represent each of Swift’s “eras” or inside jokes among fans, donning everything from sparkly dresses to cowboy boots to cat costumes. Some make hundreds of friendship bracelets to trade during shows, and memorize lyrics and fan chants for her roughly three-hour performance.
At a movie theater, Swifties can partake in those rituals with other fans, which wouldn’t be the case for an at-home viewing on the couch. The theater’s ability to recreate the concert experience is likely a key reason why Swift decided to choose the big screen for her film, said Jonathan Kuuskoski, chair of the entrepreneurship and leadership department at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance.
“The movie basically functions as an overflow room for the concert tour,” said Kuuskoski.
Swift seemed to encourage the theater as a make-shift concert venue, posting on social media: “Eras attire, friendship bracelets, singing and dancing encouraged,” adding “1, 2, 3, LGB!” the acronym to a concert fan chant.
Demand for Swift’s concerts has been astronomical, crashing Ticketmaster’s website last November and prompting US lawmakers to investigate whether the company has a monopoly on ticket sales. Ticketmaster was hit with more glitches in July when fans tried to purchase tickets for her shows in France.
While her concerts are in no short supply of attendees, a theater release opens the door to Swifties who couldn’t afford concert tickets, as well as potential new fans willing to pay for a movie ticket without committing to a concert, said Ralph Jaccodine, an assistant professor at Berklee College of Music and former concert promoter who has worked with Bruce Springsteen, Kiss and others.
Adult tickets for the film are set at $19.89, a nod to Swift’s album “1989,” whose re-recording is set for release two weeks after the “Eras Tour” theatrical debut. Swift’s favorite number is 13, and tickets for children and seniors are aptly set at $13.13.
Releasing the film in theaters is also a more financially lucrative decision than providing it to a streaming service, said Kuuskoski. For example, while moviegoers have to purchase a ticket each time they view a film, that’s not the case for streaming. Swift could also sell the film to a streaming service after it runs its course on the big screen.
Releasing the film in theaters before the tour is over seemingly runs the risk of potentially cannibalizing ticket sales for the actual concert. but the timing actually helps keep the momentum surrounding her tour going, says Jaccodine. Swift’s global tour ends in late 2024.
“I don’t think she could get any less publicity than what’s going on now,” he said.
Others seemed to have their own reasons for concern about the Eras Tour film release’s timing. The “Exorcist: Believer,” originally scheduled to be released on the same day as Swift’s film, moved it up a week.
“Look what you made me do. The Exorcist: Believer moves to 10/6/23 #TaylorWins,” the producer of the upcoming horror film posted on “X,” formerly Twitter, just hours after Swift announced her film.
The summer has already ushered in a film renaissance, as blockbusters “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” raked in a combined $511 million in global box office sales over their opening weekend and rekindled hopes that consumers are returning to movie theaters after the pandemic forced them to shutter their doors. “Barbie” is distributed by Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN.
The Eras Tour’s film will likely extend the strong run of movie ticket sales set by the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, especially as theaters ramp up their own efforts to lure in moviegoers, said Michael O’Leary, chief executive of the National Association of Theater Owners.
AMC is selling collectible popcorn tubs and fountain drink cups in theaters starting the day of the film’s release, and offering free posters along with ticket purchases while supplies last.
“I don’t think this is something which is going to be a two- or three-week phenomenon,” O’Leary said. “You’re going to have people going multiple times.”
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Olivia Rodrigo is putting the rumors to rest that one of the songs on her upcoming album is about Taylor Swift … well, sort of.
Ahead of the release of her sophomore album, “Guts,” the Grammy-winning singer spoke with The Guardian about fans’ speculation that her song “Vampire” is a dig at her pal Swift.
In the tune, Rodrigo sings about an unnamed “bloodsucker, fame-fucker,” prompting people to theorize that the lyrics are about her fellow crooner. The hearsay has been fueled by fans’ presumptions that the pair are no longer friends after rumors began circulating about a purported feud between them.
Rodrigo goes on to sing that the nameless foe is “bleeding me dry like a goddamn vampire.”
“How do I answer this?” Rodrigo told The Guardian when asked about the rumors in a story that was published Saturday. The outlet noted that she began whispering.
“I mean, I never want to say who any of my songs are about. I’ve never done that before in my career and probably won’t. I think it’s better to not pigeonhole a song to being about this one thing,” she continued. “I was very surprised when people thought that.”
Gossip about the pair’s frayed friendship ignited even further after Rodrigo told The New York Times in July that she had not attended any of Swift’s Eras Tour shows.
Back in June, the “Drivers License” singer opened up about how the song “Vampire” came about in an interview with Rolling Stone.
“I just sat down at the piano one day and played these chords that felt kind of gothic to me,” she told the outlet of the buzzed-about single. “I think there’s a lot of vampire lore to be played with like ‘You only come out at night’ and stuff like that. There’s a lot of fun songwriting fodder in there.”
“Guts” is set to be released on Sept. 8.
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Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” film, which will be released in theaters on Oct. 13, broke the record for presale revenue at AMC Theatres just hours after presales were announced.
“The Eras Tour has been the most meaningful, electric experience of my life so far and I’m overjoyed to tell you that it’ll be coming to the big screen soon,” Swift said in a tweet on Thursday morning as she announced the film and the opening of presales.
Within just three hours, the film sold $26 million worth of tickets, breaking AMC Theatres’ record for single-day advance ticket sales revenue, AMC Theatres said on Friday in a press release.
The previous record was held by “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which earned revenue of $16.9 million through single-day advance ticket sales before its release in 2021, CNN reported.
AMC Theatres did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for additional comment on the record-breaking sales.
AMC is serving as the film distributor for the “Eras Tour” concert film, which it says “marks the inaugural step of a new line of business for AMC Entertainment,” since films are usually distributed to theaters by studios.
With the “Eras Tour” concert film in high demand, AMC Theatres said it will have at least four showtimes per day on Thursdays through Sundays in all locations throughout the U.S. The film will also be shown at other theaters, such as Regal and Cinemax.
Swift’s upcoming movie has broken other records as well. According to Variety, the “Eras Tour” film also broke the ticketing service Fandango’s record for the biggest first-day ticket sales of 2023, ranking among major blockbusters including “Avengers: Endgame,” “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”
“Taylor Swift is giving moviegoing fans and the entire industry the ultimate gift by bringing ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ concert film to the big screen,” said Jerramy Hainline, the senior vice president at Fandango Ticketing, according to Variety.
Hainline continued: “Not only is Taylor Swift’s concert film the best first-day ticket seller of the year on Fandango, but the concert film is performing like the superhero she is and ranking among the best first-day ticket sellers of all time from franchises like Marvel, Star Wars, DC Comics and more.”
The “Eras Tour” film captures the entirety of Swift’s world tour for those who couldn’t attend in person or who want to see it again on screen. Tickets for the movie cost $19.89 for adults and $13.13 for kids — a nod to Swift’s “1989” album, which is set for re-release in October, and Swift’s lucky number “13,” Reuters reported.
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The opening of the movie “The Exorcist: Believer” has been moved a week earlier to avoid competition with Taylor Swift’s concert movie, the producer of the horror film, Jason Blum, confirmed Thursday on social media.
Blum posted the new release date of Oct. 6 on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the hashtag #TaylorWins. “The Exorcist: Believer” and Swift’s concert movie based on her smash “The Eras” tour were both first scheduled to be released on Oct. 13.
Fans had dubbed the pending double release “Exorswift” on social media, but the potential of “Swifties” overshadowing the demonic film —the sixth installment in “The Exorcist” franchise— proved too powerful.
“Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” smashed advanced sales records on the first day of presales for the concert movie with AMC –the movie chain distributing the film– reporting $26 million in sales on Friday.
The movie “shattered records for single-day advance ticket sales revenue at AMC,” the company said in a statement. The previous record of $16.9 million was held by “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which Swift beat in just three hours, AMC said.
Shortly after Swift announced the movie, AMC said they bolstered their server capacity in preparation for skyrocketing demand for tickets. After the first day of presales, the chain announced all AMC theaters nationwide will show the film four times a day on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday to meet demand.
On Thursday, Swift tweeted, “The Eras Tour has been the most meaningful, electric experience of my life so far and I’m overjoyed to tell you that it’ll be coming to the big screen soon. Starting Oct 13th you’ll be able to experience the concert film in theaters in North America!”
Reporting contributed by Gina Martinez
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CNN
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Taylor Swift’s concert film has already broken theater records more than a month ahead of its October 13 release. AMC Theaters said Friday that the singer’s Eras Tour concert movie “shattered records for single-day advance ticket sales revenue,” with $26 million of tickets sold on Thursday.
It beat the previous record holder, “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which sold $16.9 million worth of tickets in one day ahead of its release in 2021, AMC said in a statement.
Swift’s movie crushed the daily record less than three hours after tickets became available, prompting the theater chain to say that it will add extra showtimes where possible.
Movie theaters have been recovering from a pandemic-era audience slump, driven by summer blockbuster hits like “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” (“Barbie” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, which is owned by CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.)
But the ongoing Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strikes and the impasse with studio negotiations mean that the pool of movies making its way to theaters could dry up over the next year. While studios typically distribute movies to theaters, AMC is acting as the Eras Tour film distributor in what it called “the inaugural step of a new line of business for AMC Entertainment.”
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Even the paranormal powers of The Exorcist are no match for Taylor Swift and the legion of devoted fans she commands. Following Swift’s announcement of a concert film documenting her blockbuster Eras Tour, set to hit theaters on October 13, The Exorcist: Believer, a sequel to the 1973 original, has fled to another date.
The Universal horror film, originally slated for Friday, October 13, will now debut a week earlier on October 6. Blumhouse head Jason Blum announced the move on social media, writing, “Look what you made me do. The Exorcist: Believer moves to 10/6/23. #TaylorWins.” The Exorcist’s new competition? Sony’s Dumb Money, director Craig Gillespie’s film unpacking the GameStop stock drama of 2021, starring Paul Dano and Seth Rogen.
This shift has already proven to be a prudent one. According to The Hollywood Reporter, ticket presales for Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour have hit $26 million after the first day for distributor AMC Theatres, breaking the record for the highest-ever single-day advance ticket sales, which was previously set by Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021 with $16.9 million. AMC has since added showtimes to the theatrical run, which will happen in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Tickets start at $19.89 for adults and $13.13 for children.
As for The Exorcist: Believer, Ellen Burstyn, star of William Friedkin’s Oscar-winning original, is returning as Chris MacNeil, whose life was forever changed when her daughter, Regan, experienced a paranormal event. In the film, set 50 years after that possession, Leslie Odom Jr. plays Victor Fielding, a father who seeks Chris’s help when his daughter experiences a similar haunting. Halloween trilogy director David Gordon Green is helming the follow-up, the first in a planned trilogy. The second installment, The Exorcist: Deceiver, is set for April 18, 2025.
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Savannah Walsh
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When thousands of fans couldn’t get tickets for megastar Taylor Swift’s summer stadium tour, some diehards paid upwards of 70 times face value to see their favorite artist in person – an outrage that prompted Congressional hearings and bills in state legislatures to better protect consumers.
After 10 months, Swift’s U.S. tour is finished, but so are most of the meaningful reforms consumer advocates and industry groups had hoped to pass this year. A proposal has so far failed to advance in the U.S. Senate. Legislation in Colorado was vetoed by the Democratic governor at the urging of some consumer groups.
Scott Eisen / TAS23 / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
In California, home to iconic recording studios like Capitol Records and influential clubs like the Whiskey A Go Go and Hollywood Bowl, what started as a robust array of legislation has been watered down to a single bill banning hidden fees, something New York and Connecticut have done and most major industry players have already committed to do on their own.
“That’s it? That’s all that California, the leading state in the nation on so many consumer protection issues, that’s all we’re going to do?” said Robert Herrell, executive director of the Consumer Federation of California. “That’s an embarrassment. It’s not enough.”
The slow progress over changing how tickets should be sold and resold highlights not just the strength of industry opposition, but the regulatory difficulties in a market upended by technology. Gone are the days of standing in line at a box office to find out what seats were available and how much they cost.
Today, nearly all tickets are sold online and downloaded to phones or other devices. Consumers often don’t know how much they will pay until just before they click the purchase button and fees and charges, which can sometimes be almost as much as the ticket price, are applied.
Mat Hayward / TAS23 / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
Venues often don’t say how many seats are available for a specific event, according to consumer groups, but instead release tickets in batches, making consumers spend more out of the mistaken fear they’ll miss out.
Some bad actors use software to quickly bulk-buy tickets for resale at much higher prices. They will even sell tickets before they have them, a practice known as “speculative ticketing” that consumer groups say is dangerous and does not guarantee the ticket. Some go so far as to mimic venue websites so consumers believe they are buying tickets directly.
Sharp disagreements among venues, ticket sellers, consumer groups and artists have muddied what may seemingly straightforward consumer rights issues.
Artists and venues want to restrict how fans can resell tickets, an attempt to crack down on “the secondary market to sweep the inventory, inflate the price and price gouge our fans,” said Jordan Bromley, who sits on the board of the Music Artist Coalition, an advocacy group representing artists.
Consumer groups argue buyers can do what they want with their tickets, including upselling. That disagreement is partly why Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis vetoed a bill earlier this year, despite the bill also containing consumer-friendly policies like banning hidden fees, price increases and speculative ticket sales.
In California, consumer groups have mostly focused their ire on Live Nation Entertainment, the company that owns Ticketmaster and controls the bulk of ticket sales and venues in the U.S. for touring music artists. But the debate is spreading to artists, major men’s professional sports teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco 49ers, and independent venues with capacity for 1,000 people or fewer, including more than 600 in California alone.
Most people are being vocal about “how this is an attempt to shoot at Ticketmaster and Live Nation,” said Julia Heath, president of the California chapter of the National Independent Venue Association. “What’s actually happening is they are aiming at them, but they are hitting everybody else, too.”
The biggest disagreement was over whether to allow teams, venues and artists to restrict how fans could resell tickets they purchased.
A bill to allow teams, venues and artists restrict how fans can resell tickets passed the Senate but failed to pass the Assembly this year after drawing concerns from consumer groups. State Sen. Anna Caballero, the bill’s author, promised to hold a hearing on the issue once the Legislature adjourns.
A bill by Assemblymember Laura Friedman would ban venues and artists from restricting resales. The measure also would have required venues to disclose how many tickets were available for an event to prevent “holdbacks.” Ultimately, the bill was changed to remove both of those provisions after attracting strong industry opposition.
“It’s been very difficult. It had a very strong and concerted effort from the very beginning lobby against this bill,” said Friedman, who added she was disappointed the bill was not stronger.
Industry groups also are disappointed. Heath, who represents independent venues, called it a “do-nothing bill.”
“A lot of the things we took issue with are gone, but we also see it as a missed opportunity,” she said. “There are issues in the ticketing world right now that need to be addressed.”
Not everyone is disappointed. Jenn Engstrom, state director for the California Public Interest Research Group, said while it would be great to solve all of those problems, banning hidden fees is still a win for consumers.
“I’m just all about incremental change,” she said. “This is a good first step.”
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Taylor Swift’s surprise film announcement has “haunted” Universal into releasing the latest installment of “The Exorcist” one week early.
The “Karma” singer took to social media on Thursday morning to share that her Eras Tour film would hit theaters on Oct. 13, the same release date that the distributor set for “The Exorcist: Believer.”
But after the concert film’s AMC ticket presales reportedly sailed past $10 million and sparked ”#Exorswift” memes, Jason Blum – one of “The Exorcist” sequel’s producers – said the horror film would move up to an Oct. 6 release date.
“Look what you made me do,” wrote the Blumhouse Productions founder and Oscar-nominated producer in a nod to the singer’s 2017 song.
“The Exorcist: Believer moves to 10/6/23 #TaylorWins.”
The horror film isn’t the only would-be Swift competitor to bow out of a potential release date faceoff.
Rapper Moneybagg Yo pushed back the release date of his project “Hard to Love” after he heard that Swift would drop new editions of her album “Midnights” on May 26.
“Y’all be patient with me, man, let Taylor have this shit,” the rapper said in a video shared to social media.
Swift’s film announcement led to fans experiencing “wait times and lags” to purchase tickets on AMC Theatres’ app and website, NBC News reported.
The tour, which began in March and is set to continue through the end of next year, is expected to gross over $1 billion.
“It would be unwise to underestimate the power of Taylor Swift to draw legions of Swifties to the multiplex, but the release [could] also could draw new fans looking to get in on the Eras Tour experience,” Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, told the outlet.
“This could propel an unprecedented opening weekend that could perhaps top $100 million.”
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