Christopher Nolan says Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ movie will teach Hollywood studios a lesson

Christopher Nolan and Taylor Swift
| Photo Credit: REUTERS/Stephane Mahe and REUTERS/MARIO ANZUONI

Christopher Nolan has said that Hollywood studios have missed out big on not releasing Taylor Swift‘s concert film, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, which has been taking movie theatres across the world by storm.

During an event at the City University of New York, Nolan and his producer-wife Emma Thomas were interviewed by author Kai Bird (whose book ‘American Prometheus’ was made into Oppenheimer by Nolan).

“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 theatre owner, AMC, and it’s going to make an enormous amount of money. 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,” Deadline quoted Nolan.

Swift’s self-produced film, which opened in 3,855 theatres throughout the U.S. and Canada and 4,527 venues internationally, debuted between $95 million and $97 million in North America and $123.5 million globally last week. In fact, the advance global ticket sales had crossed the $100 million mark prior to the release.

Interestingly, Nolan’s Oppenheimer is amongst the biggest blockbusters of the year, having debuted on one of the biggest box office weekends ever with Barbie.

“Any time a film succeeds that wasn’t expected to succeed, it’s an encouraging thing for Hollywood and it’s encouraging for filmmakers. There’s a tension in Hollywood between the familiar and what is predicted to make money, that’s the meat and potatoes of how the studios stay in business, and the desire among audiences for something new, something fresh. That tension, that reality… between commerce and art, that formula never changes in Hollywood,” added Nolan at the event when asked about the humongous gross of his film Oppenheimer.

The concert film, with a runtime of 168 minutes, documents Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour which had a 44-song set list across the many eras and albums of her career. The film has visuals shot during three of Swift’s concerts at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, a suburb of Los Angeles, early August.