“Killers of the Flower Moon” was Scorsese’s third best opening. It brought in 23 million dollars. Taylor Swift’s Eras film on the other hand broke box office records with an estimated $31 million in its second weekend of release. In doing so, it became the highest-grossing concert film in North America ever, with about $130 million in domestic box office sales.
That doesn’t surprise Maya Oster who studies film and television production at USC.
Oster: “Because Swifties are crazy and she just has such a massive fan base that it totally makes sense. Like the Eras tour was so in demand for live tickets, it makes so much sense that now that it’s like available widely, it’s having this big of a reaction.”
Paulina Zornikova studies film production.
Zornikova: “I think there are more Swifties in America right now than there are Scorsese fans, probably.”
But those Scorcese fans, she says, should not feel bad.
Zornikova: “I think they’re just like made for two different audiences. And I don’t think Taylor Swift’s movie beating Martin Scorsese movie at the box office is the death of cinema.”
It may not be the death of cinema, but it can’t compare with all the life in the movie theater for Taylor Swift, says Oster.
Oster: “Eras Tour movie theater is, like, filled with girls of all ages, dancing and singing and shouting and screaming. It’s like, really fun environment. And then Killers of the Flower Moon is, like, very much your classic movie theater experience everyone sits down everyone applauds at the end during the credits. Like it feels like a film festival screening, almost.”
While some celebrate Swift’s success, others say a simple film of a concert outgrowing an artistic.. multi-year produced film like “Killers Of the Flower Moon...” could have an effect on the film industry. Jordan Rice studies theater at USC.
Rice: “I’m happy for the Taylor Swift fans, but it’s really upsetting to see an icon of the film industry be beat out by someone in a different field. That being said, I think it’s important that we’re changing the landscape of how we view cinema and how we view movies. So if it’s getting more people to support movie theaters, which is an industry that is dying, then I’m for it.”
Cinema may be suffering, but concert films will continue to be a thing says USC Thornton School of Music professor Nate Sloan. He says the film will be part of marketing the whole package
Sloan: “There will be the album, there will be the tour, there will be the film version of the tour, there will be the Associated merch. In an era when musical artists are making less money than ever because of the economics of the streaming music industry, they are turning to other sources of revenue.”
And part of the appeal must be that twenty bucks for the film is affordable to more people than hundreds or thousands of dollars to see Taylor Swift live!
For Annenberg Media, I’m Gabriella Medina.