Creating a name for herself through her expository and relatable lyric-writing ability and incredible concert performances, Taylor Swift has swept through global records and pop culture standards. Her most notable tour to date has been The Eras Tour, a 3-hour, 44-song, and $20 million production.
Her first since The Reputation Stadium Tour in 2018, this tour gives tribute to all of Swift’s past albums or “eras,” as opposed to typical concerts with only the most recent album and a few other popular hits. The show has led to some of the most support for a single artist ever seen, so much so that Swift’s Seattle concert caused seismic activity similar to a 2.3-magnitude earthquake.
From an economic standpoint, tickets were in the high hundreds and, in some cases, inflated into the thousands. Ticketmaster, a mainstream platform for buying and selling concert tickets, reported that over 3.5 million people registered for the concert in advance, the largest in Ticketmaster history. The excitement for The Eras Tour did not end there; on August 31st, Swift announced her newest documentary, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, to premiere on October 13th worldwide.
Her excellent marketing and business module and her active fan platform allow both the economic profit and wave of publicity from her famed tour to continue. The documentary can be seen in theaters such as Cinemark, Regal, and Fandango and has already broken AMC’s record for the most single-day advance ticket sales revenue, with $26 million worth of tickets sold in 24 hours.
The two-hour and forty-minute documentary was filmed during Swift’s six shows at Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles and directed by San Wrench. “Eras attire, friendship bracelets, and singing and dancing encouraged,” Swift noted in her announcement of the documentary on social media to promote a concert-like experience. As a result, fans created energetic environments in theaters with singing and dancing. “A lot of people stood up on the sides, and people screamed during the most popular songs,” Elle Lee ’26 said.
******Spoilers below********
The shortened runtime allowed fans to assume that a few songs would be cut from the setlist. Those songs included “Wildest Dreams,” “cardigan,” “Long Live,” “The Archer,” “no body, no crime,” and “‘tis the damn season.”
Going into the film, I was nervous that the removal of a few songs would be apparent, but the fantastic editing hid the missing songs very well. The movie used beautiful effects to transition between the different “eras,” which helped the concert flow smoothly despite the shortened time.
I enjoyed the movie, as it did a great job of making it seem like you were in the stadium using a variety of camera angles. The performances were captured very well, from clips of fans reacting to Swift to those of her band and dancers.
My favorite aspect of the documentary was the inclusion of fans; watching audience members scream, sing, and dance helped add to the energetic environment. The fans helped transport me into the stadium, rather than feel like I was in a small theater, distant from the concert experience. In addition, the included bloopers and fan interactions during the credits made the movie feel more heartfelt.
The documentary translated Swift’s stage presence to the audience, even without the bright lights or the crowded concert atmosphere. For Taylor Swift fans who did not get to attend The Eras Tour in person, the movie will almost provide that same experience, and for a lot less!
