Battle at the Box Office 10/16/23

As expected, Taylor Swift’s world domination continued in theaters, with what is now the highest-grossing concert film of all time domestically.

Taylor Swift|The Eras Tour took in $92.8 million over the weekend, not quite the potential $100+ million that some analysts were predicting but still a massive debut after several weeks of some terrible box office.  The movie was mostly a domestic release, with only $758,726 from territories outside North America.  After just one weekend, The Eras Tour is now the highest-grossing concert film of all time domestically, obliterating the total gross of Justin Beiber’s Never Say Never, which was $73 million.  It’s also the biggest opening ever for a concert film, crushing Miley Cyrus’ Best of Both Worlds, which opened to $31.1 million in 2008. The Eras Tour has drawn comparisons to Barbie and it’s faltered against that pink juggernaut, as Barbie opened to over $162 million this past summer.

The Exorcist: Believer dropped to a distant second with another $10.9 million, bringing it to $44.9 million for two weeks out.  It dropped 60%, which is fairly normal for a horror movie and actually not terrible considering the wrecking ball that was Taylor Swift.  Believer is currently second only to the original Exorcist for domestic and worldwide gross, topping all the previous sequels in the franchise.

Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie took third place with another $6.8 million, bringing it to $49.8 million for a domestic total and $126.2 million worldwide.  It has passed the first Paw Patrol movie domestically and will almost definitely pass it worldwide as well.

Saw X and The Creator rounded out the top 5, with Saw X crossing $60 million worldwide with $64.9 million.

Taylor Swift also took the Per Theater average for the weekend, with $24,074 in each of the 3,855 theaters it was playing in.