Taylor Swift's Eras Tour film scores the highest ever opening for concert film with $92.8mn in North America

Movie theatres turned into concert venues this weekend as Swifties brought their dance moves and friendship bracelets to multiplexes across the country. The unparalleled enthusiasm helped propel Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour to a massive, first-place debut between $95 million and $97 million in North America, AMC Theatres said Sunday.

It's easily the biggest opening for a concert film of all time, and, not accounting for inflation, has made more than the $73 million Justin Bieber: Never Say Never earned in 2011. In today's dollars, that would be around $102 million. And if it comes in on the higher end of projections when totals are released Monday, it could be the biggest October opening ever. The one to beat is Joker, which launched to $96.2 million in 2019.

A unique experiment in distribution, premium pricing, star power, and loose movie theater etiquette — more dancing and shouting than a Star Wars premiere — have made it an undeniable hit. Compiled from Swift's summer shows at Southern California's SoFi Stadium, the film opened in 3,855 North American locations starting with "surprise" Thursday evening previews. Those showtimes helped boost its opening day sum to $39 million – the second biggest ever for October, behind Joker's $39.3 million.

Internationally, it's estimated to have earned somewhere between $31 to $33 million, bringing its global total in the range of $126 million to $130 million.

"This is a phenomenal number," said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. "To have a blockbuster-style opening weekend for a concert film is unprecedented."

Swift, who produced the film, went around the Hollywood studio system to distribute the film, making a deal directly with AMC, the largest exhibition company in the United States. With her 274 million Instagram followers, Swift hardly needed a traditional marketing campaign to get the word out.

Beyoncé made a similar deal with the exhibitor for Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé, which will open on December 1. The two superstars posed together at the premiere of The Eras Tour earlier this week in Los Angeles. It was a needed injection of star power with Hollywood actors over 90 days into a strike that has left most red carpets void of glamourous talent and resulted in several high-profile films being pushed to next year.

The Eras Tour, directed by Sam Wrench, is not just playing on AMC screens either. The company, based in Leawood, Kansas, worked with sub-distribution partners Variance Films, Trafalgar Releasing, Cinepolis, and Cineplex to show the film in more than 8,500 movie theatres globally in 100 countries.

The spotlight on Swift has been especially intense lately as a result of her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. The two made separate surprise appearances on Saturday Night Live this weekend and were also photographed holding hands in New York.