After eight albums in five years, a best-selling tour that is set to keep running until November 2024, a failed attempt at a live-action short film Oscar nod, two streaming documentary films, a flop David O. Russell project, and, of course, “Cats,” Taylor Swift has evidently decided that her fans still can’t get enough of her.
On August 31, Swift announced that her ongoing “The Eras Tour,” which grosses roughly $13 million per night, will be coming to AMC Theaters in the form of a concert film shot at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The concert movie — set for theatrical release on October 13 — will be distributed exclusively in AMC Theaters, and will be available in premium formats like IMAX and Dolby Cinema.
As with absolutely everything the pop star does these days, “The Eras Tour” news was greeted with a reaction comparable to the dropping of a pop culture bomb. The concert film made a record $37 million on first day pre-sales alone, according to AMC, and generated discourse over what it means for the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes and the studios. It also lead to a lot of movies deciding that they, evidently, do not have the name recognition or power to compete with Swift and her legion of terrifyingly devoted Swifties.
At least five films have taken Swift’s announcement as a sign to decamp from their previous October 13 release dates, and bump themselves either up or back. First came “The Exorcist: Believer,” which was briefly a part of a viral #Exorswift trend that could have been the new Barbenheimer had Blumhouse opted cash in on the would-be box office battle. Instead, it’ll come out a week earlier than planned. That’s been the most obvious film impacted by Swift, mainly because Jason Blum himself tweeted about it, but there’s also a Meg Ryan rom-com, a Game Stop dramedy, and a Christian film with Hillary Swank. All have had their theatrical runs shuffled as a result.
Here’s a rundown of the movies that have fled October 13 due to the power of the Swift. Entries are listed in alphabetical order, and the list will be updated should more films announce release date changes. Maybe she…Forgot That They Existed?
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“Dumb Money”
Image Credit: Sony Craig Gillespie’s “Dumb Money,” which tells the story of the infamous 2021 GameStop short squeeze, has had a bizarre history with its release dates. The dramedy was originally scheduled by Sony to open October 20, but was later moved up to September 22. In August, presumably in order to compensate for the changes caused by the strike, Sony announced that the TIFF premiere will have an extensive, four stage rollout: opening in Los Angeles and New York on September 15, releasing in limited theaters on September 22, expanding to a “moderate release” September 29, before finally going wide October 6. Then, Taylor Swift announced the Eras documentary, and Sony cut a step in the proceedings: the film will now open in Chicago, DC, Boston, and San Francisco along with New York and Los Angeles on September 15, going to whatever a moderate release is on September 22, and opening wide September 29.
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“The Exorcist: Believer”
Image Credit: Universal/Blumhouse David Gordon Green’s “The Exorcist: Believer” certainly doesn’t seem to believe in its own ability to compete with Taylor Swift. The soft reboot of the beloved “The Exorcist” franchise, which ignores every film after the 1973 original, was the first movie to leap away from its October 13 release date when Swift dropped the “Eras Tour” bomb on studios. Jason Blum announced the new date of October 6 on Twitter, and acknowledged that Swift was responsible for the decision, tweeting “Look What You Made Me Do,” the title of a song from the pop star, and the #Taylorwins. The move quashed a budding #Exorswift trend on Twitter, leaving fans of classic horror franchises and America’s favorite Tumblr girl to buy tickets for a seperate viewing of the adventures of Leslie Odom Jr. and Ellen Burstyn.
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“Ordinary Angels”
Image Credit: ©Lions Gate/Courtesy Everett Collection Even Jesus is afraid of Taylor Swift. “Ordinary Angels,” a Lionsgate film from director Jon Gunn and Christian film company Kingdom Story Company, flapped away from its October 6 release date a day after Swift announced the Eras Tour was coming to theaters. It’s the only film that was moved that has yet to receive a new release date, with Lionsgate instead choosing to hold it indefinitely. Hillary Swank stars in the film, set during the 1994 North American cold wave, as a hairdresser who rallies her local community to help a widowed father (Alan Ritchson) save his ill young daughter.
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“The Persian Version”
Image Credit: Sony Pictures Classics Sony Pictures Classics’ “The Persian Version” was initially scheduled to open October 13 in Los Angeles and New York theaters, but IndieWire has confirmed that it will now open on October 20, and that the move was motivated by screen availability offset by “The Eras Tour.” Directed by Maryam Keshavarz, the comedy stars Layla Mohammadi as a young Iranian-American director struggling to navigate her strained relationship with her mother (Niousha Noor) when her family reunites in New York for her father’s heart transplant surgery. The film was a hit at Sundance, receiving the U.S. Dramatic Competition Audience Award.
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“What Happens Later”
Image Credit: screenshot/Bleecker Street “What Happens Later?” The release of Meg Ryan’s rom-com return, of course. Originally scheduled for October 13, “What Happens Later” was moved by Bleecker Street, and will now open almost a month later on November 3. Ryan wrote, directed, and starred in the new film, which casts her opposite David Duchovny as two exes who are forced to spend the night together after getting stranded in a snowed-in airport.
