Taylor Swift: Screenings of Eras Tour film sell out on release day
Thousands of Taylor Swift fans flocked to cinemas on Friday night with glow sticks and friendship bracelets in hand to watch the pop star’s Eras Tour concert film.
The film, which runs for just under three hours, is expected to make hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide after becoming the most profitable concert film in history.
Screenings across London sold out, with hundreds of fans bustling around Leicester Square on Friday evening with glow sticks, sparkly dresses and complimentary posters showing Swift in a jewelled bodysuit.
Katie Stewart and Sarah Stewart, both 21 from London, at Vue West End in London’s Leicester Square
Workers said they were relaxing cinema etiquette, with fans taking full advantage – singing, dancing and cheering as the film showed Swift speeding through almost 40 hit songs from her 17-year career.
Many had not scored coveted tickets to Swift’s live UK dates next summer and were thrilled by the opportunity to attend their own performance of the Eras Tour. Some said this would be the first screening of several they would go to.
The film has received hugely positive reviews and for good reason.
Swift fan Haoyu Wang, 24
Filmed across several concerts held in Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium in August, Swift’s immense catalogue of hits and even more impressive energy and stamina result in a cinematic offering that has no dull moments.
There’s even a touching moment when Swift gifts the late Kobe Bryant’s daughter a black bowler that is synonymous with her Red album.
So all-encompassing is Swift’s popularity that she pushed the film’s release forward by one day in the US and Canada due to “unprecedented demand”.
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Taylor Swift’s film premieres
In the UK, the film broke the record for the most tickets sold during the pre-sale opening week for a music event, according to Vue International.
US cinema chain AMC Theatres Distribution previously said the Swift film had beaten its record for the highest ticket-sales revenue during a single day in its 103-year history.
It also broke the record for the most profitable concert film in history one week before its release. Global advance ticket sales had topped $100m (£82m) as of 6 October.
Read more:
The Eras Tour film coming to UK – here’s how to get tickets
Taylor Swift and Beyonce reporters wanted by US newspaper chain
Swift will bring the live Eras Tour show to the UK next year, visiting Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff and London.
The UK and Ireland leg of the tour will start in Edinburgh with three shows at Murrayfield Stadium on 7, 8 and 9 June 2024 before she heads to Liverpool’s Anfield stadium for 13, 14 and 15 June.
Cardiff’s Principality Stadium follows on 18 June before three dates at London’s Wembley Stadium on 21, 22, and 23 June.
She will then play dates in Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Poland and Austria before returning to Wembley in August.
Taylor Swift has revealed the release date for her new album, The Life Of A Showgirl.
The pop megastar announced her 12th studio album earlier this week but didn’t give many details.
Now, in social media posts and an appearance on boyfriend Travis Kelce’s sports podcast, Swift revealed just what fans can expect from the new album.
Taylor Swift and boyfriend Travis Kelce on the New Heights podcast. Pic: New Heights
The Life of Showgirl, written during the European leg of her record-breaking Eras tour, will be released on 3 October.
It consists of 12 songs, including the title track that features pop star Sabrina Carpenter.
The full track list is:
1. The Fate Of Ophelia
2. Elizabeth Taylor
3. Opalite
4. Father Figure
5. Eldest Daughter
6. Ruin The Friendship
7. Actually Romantic
8. Wi$h Li$t
9. Wood
10. Cancelled!
11. Honey
12. The Life Of A Showgirl (featuring Sabrina Carpenter)
Long-time collaborators Max Martin and Shellback, two Swedish producers who worked with Swift on some of her biggest hits, joined the pop star for this album.
Within four hours of posting the full podcast episode on YouTube, it had already gathered 4.7m views.
The cover of Taylor Swift’s newly announced album. Pic: Republic Records
The back cover of Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album The Life Of A Showgirl. Pic: Republic Records
‘The hardest-working star in pop’
The album follows last year’s The Tortured Poets Department, which was released during the Eras tour.
That tour, with shows on five continents and in 51 cities, raked in more than $2.2bn (£1.62bn) and was the highest-grossing tour of all time.
Read more about Taylor Swift:
Swift’s final London show was the ‘best’
The impact of the ‘excruciating’ Era’s tour
Her new chart record
“This album is about what was going on behind the scenes in my inner life during this tour, which was so exuberant and electric and vibrant,” Swift said during her podcast appearance.
Sky News culture and entertainment reporter Gemma Peplow said after her globe-trotting tour and a swathe of re-releases over recent years, the new album cemented Swift’s reputation “as the hardest-working star in pop”.
Disgraced US film producer Harvey Weinstein is to be tried for a third time in a sexual assault case.
A jury in New York could not reach a verdict in June against the 73-year-old who was accused of raping actress Jessica Mann, and a mistrial was declared.
Judge Curtis Farber has said he wants the new trial to happen before the end of this year.
The same jury found Weinstein guilty in June of sexually assaulting former Project Runway production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006 and not guilty of assaulting Polish former runway model Kaja Sokola the same year.
Weinstein will be sentenced for the guilty verdict in Ms Haley’s case on 30 September.
He denied all of the charges. Throughout the retrial, his lawyers insisted the sexual encounters with his three accusers were “transactional” and “consensual,” and labelled the women as opportunists.
Weinstein was originally convicted of rape and criminal sexual act by the same court in 2020 and sentenced to 23 years in prison for the crimes.
Last year, however, New York’s highest court overturned the conviction, prompting Weinstein’s retrial this summer.
Weinstein was once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood – the co-founder of film and television production companies Miramax and The Weinstein Company, who produced films such as the Oscar-winning Shakespeare In Love, Pulp Fiction, and The Crying Game.
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In 2017, a series of sexual misconduct allegations against him propelled the #MeToo movement.
Some of those accusations later led to criminal charges and his convictions in New York and California.
Before the retrial, Weinstein was also serving a 16-year prison sentence after being found guilty of rape in California in December 2022. He has also denied this charge.
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