Celebrated “Guy Movie” filmmaker Christopher Nolan might’ve just earned himself a new fleet of younger female fans, now that he’s gone on the record praising Taylor Swift. During a recent City University of New York event, the Oppenheimer directer lauded the pop star’s “The Eras Tour” concert film, saying it’ll help prove how “incredibly valuable” the theater experience is to viewers in the streaming age.
“Taylor Swift is about to show the studios, because her concert film is not being distributed by the studios, it’s being distributed by a theater owner, AMC, and it’s going to make an enormous amount of money,” Nolan said. “And this is the thing, [theatrical exhibition is] a format and a way of seeing things and sharing stories, or sharing experiences, that’s incredibly valuable. And if [the studios] don’t want it, somebody else will. So that’s just the truth of it.”
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour set a single-day record at AMC by bringing in $26 million in pre-sale tickets when it was first announced. Within just four days, it became the highest-grossing concert film in domestic box office history, grossing between $95 and $97 million in its opening weekend.
Nolan’s Oppenheimer also set some records this year — well, with a little help from Barbie. Their mutual premiere date and subsequent “Barbenheimer” phenomenon resulted in the first time in box office history that two movies each opened to over $80 million.
Watch Nolan’s interview below; his Swift comments begin around the 35:30 mark.
Swift will resume “The Eras Tour” next month with shows in Argentina and Brasil. In 2024, she’s slated to head to Asia, Australia, and Europe, before returning to North America for a final leg. Tickets for the international dates can be purchased here, and you can secure your seats for her North American stops here.
