Taylor's Version: As the Eras Tour film hits the silver screen, here's how Swift is fueling the economy

The “Eras Tour” film is currently the highest-grossing domestic and international global concert film of all time

Occupying the penthouse of our hearts, Taylor Swift is here dressed like a daydream and we’re all ready for it.

136 shows. 51 cities. 45 songs. 10 eras.

Early in 2023, Hollywood icon Taylor Swift announced her second stadium tour, the “Eras Tour”, which commenced in March. As the musical star continues to shatter records worldwide, the film version of the tour made its India debut on November 3 and needless to say, the fans are enchanted by it.

The “Eras Tour” film is currently the highest-grossing domestic and international global concert film of all time, garnering 25,000 pre-ticket sales just on the opening day in India. Besides, the film grossed more than $90 million on the opening day in North America, and a staggering $200 million worldwide. The film was shot at a sold-out show in California’s SoFI Stadium that seats over 70,000 people and Swifties from across the country danced to the icon's songs in cinema halls for three straight hours.

Also read: Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour film is as exhilarating as anything you might see in a cinema this year

Ladies and Gentlemen, will you please stand!

The US leg of the Eras Tour that commenced this March, ended in August, grossing an estimated $5 billion dollars for the overall US economy. It is anticipated to continue smashing records as Swift continues to take the tour to international locations later this year, and through the whole of 2024, giving us unforgettable moments.

Throughout 2023, she has generated massive revenue for every US host city, driving the entertainment, tourism, fashion, and the hospitality industry.

Taylor "took back the crown"

Taylor Swift recently dropped the re-recorded version of her “1989” album, which has already surpassed the sales of her original album that was originally released in 2014. It has sold nearly 1.7 million copies in the very first week of its release and is the pop star’s biggest hit till date. Safe to say, Swift has left all of us 'enchanted'.

“I was born in 1989, and reinvented for the first time in 2014. And a part of me was reclaimed in 2023 with the re-release of this album I love so dearly,” Swift said on October 27.

Apart from 1989, Taylor Swift has re-recorded other albums, such as Red, Fearless, and Speak Now. After signing into Big Machine Records in 2005 as a fresh-faced singer, the contract for which expired in 2018, she switched labels to Universal’s Republic Records. Nevertheless, Big Machine still owns the masters, or original recordings, of her first six albums that she released until 2018, due to which she re-recorded these albums and released them under her title or "Taylor's Version", securing the rights to all her big hits.

Putting the money in the car

The US Travel Association data showed that Taylor Swift Fans spend an average of $1300 on concert tickets, travel, and relevant clothing to match themes of the different “Eras” of the tour. This total estimate is nearly on par with expenditure by fans for the infamous Super Bowl.

The average ticket for the concert is about $254 but the expenditure doesn’t end here. According to the QuestionPro survey, fans have spent about $300 on their attire and about $215 on merchandise sold at the concert venue.

The American Dynasty

In May 2023, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia stated in its beige Book that Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour was a boon for the city’s tourism industry, given the revenue generation witnessed for local businesses on the opening night in Glendale Arizona, which was remarkably higher than the Super Bowl, held at the same venue earlier in the year, as learnt from a BBC report.

After two nights of concerts at the Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, which had 60, 000 attendees each, Ohio, the area’s travel and tourism board Visit Cincinnati noted that Swift brought in $90 million singlehandedly to the greater Cincinnati area. The hotels in downtown Cincinnati had 98 percent occupancy and the visitor’s bureau estimated that Swift was responsible for $7.9 million additional hotel revenue for these two days of the concert, the report further added.

In New Zealand, a location that was not a part of the tour, multiple fans flew to Australia to see the legend, owing to which Air New Zealand had to introduce 14 additional flights to ferry the Swifties.

"If Taylor Swift were an economy, she’d be bigger than 50 countries,” said Dan Fleetwood, President of QuestionPro Research and Insights, in a story for GlobalNewsWire.

The fans that "became her religion"

Taylor Swift opened up the sale of tickets for the eras tour in November 2022 on Ticketmaster. The platform witnessed a major failure as the demand for the presale of tickets was higher than expected. A similar situation was reported in July of that year when the platform opened the sale of tickets for her 2024 tour and caused the website to crash yet again. Sigh, Champagne problems!

The enthusiasm of the Swifties is so high that cities that host her concerts have been facing supply shortages. In her song “You’re on your own, kid,” Swift mentions “friendship bracelets” and the fans created a tradition out of it. Each concert witnesses bejeweled fans wearing and exchanging bracelets that spell out the names of Swift’s songs all the way up their arms. This has resulted in boosting the revenue for local businesses, which have even reported bead and sequin shortages.

Swift’s fans also took “Shake It Off” too seriously and and sparked seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake during her concert in Seattle, stated seismologists. The fans on social media later started referring to it as a “Swift Quake”.

Amid her concert film debuting in various parts of the world, the premiere of the film took place in a mall in Los Angeles which had 13 screens. Swift visited the mall to participate in the premiere, owing to which, the entire 600,000-square-foot-mall was set for the day, as were a few roads leading up to it.

"Breaking the status quo"

Putting up a concert is a tedious task with logistics including stage production, catering, backup dancers, vocalists, band, costume designers playing a major role, something that Swift is well aware of.

Keeping this in mind, Swift paid a $100,000 bonus to each of the 50 truck drivers who ferried her production across the country. She also extended bonuses to the entire touring staff, amounting to a total of $55 million.

As Swift attained her billionaire status through this tour, her economic dominance through the international leg is about to begin again any time now.