Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is a 2023 American concert film produced by the singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and directed by Sam Wrench. It documents the Los Angeles shows of the Eras Tour (2023–2024), Swift's sixth headlining concert tour and the highest-grossing tour of all time. Swift struck an unprecedented distribution agreement with AMC Theatres and Cinemark Theatres for the film after negotiations with the major film studios fell through.
Filming took place in August 2023 across three shows at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, with a budget of $10–20 million and SAG-AFTRA permitting production to proceed amidst its 2023 strike. Swift announced the film later that month, catching studios off guard and causing the release dates of several films that had been set for release on or near October 13 to be moved. The unconventional release strategy was a topic of media discourse; many journalists and industry personnel praised Swift's move to bypass the studios to partner with theatres and opined that the move defied the traditional producer–distributor–exhibitor model of releasing films.
The film premiered at the Grove in Los Angeles on October 11, 2023, and was released to theaters worldwide on October 13. It was met with significant ticket demand, amassing a record $37 million on its first day of pre-sales in the U.S. and over $100 million in total global pre-sales. The Eras Tour became the highest-grossing concert film of all time, earning $267.1 million in its limited theatrical run worldwide. It received acclaim from critics, most of whom praised the direction, spectacle, energy, and Swift's artistry and showmanship. An extended cut of the film, subtitled (Taylor's Version), includes performances withheld from the theatrical edit and was released on the streaming service Disney+ on March 14, 2024.
A second concert film recorded at the tour's final show on December 8, 2024, in Vancouver, was also released on Disney+ on December 12, 2025. Subtitled The Final Show, the film was directed by Glenn Weiss and featured The Tortured Poets Department act that was incorporated into the tour's setlist after Wrench's film was released. It has received five nominations at the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, including for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded).
Plot
The film is a "cinematic rendering" of the Eras Tour, the sixth headlining concert tour by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Representing Swift's discography conceptually in 10 acts ("eras"), it depicts performances of most songs on the tour's set list, with several songs and intermissions cut to condense the 3.5-hour show into a 2.75-hour film.
Beginning with a 13-second countdown clock ticking down, the show opens with the Lover act. Hidden by dancers in giant fan-like tapestry, Swift emerges mid-stage in a sparkly pink and blue bodysuit, singing the chorus to "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince", followed by "Cruel Summer". Accompanied by dancers, Swift sings "The Man" and "You Need to Calm Down" in a silver blazer and a set emulating office cubicles. She then performs "Lover" on a pink guitar. Swift ends the first act with "The Archer". The second act, Fearless, sees Swift in a gold fringed dress performing the songs "Fearless", "You Belong with Me" and "Love Story" with her band while her backup singers wore gold and silver jackets and black jumpsuits. The third act, Evermore, features a forest aesthetic. Swift dons an orange gown and a dark green cape and performs "Willow" with dancers holding glowing orbs, followed by "Marjorie", and then "Champagne Problems" at a moss-covered piano. She ends the act with "Tolerate It", where she and a male dancer, Raphael Thomas, play a troubled couple at a dinner table.
In the snake-themed fourth act, Reputation, Swift delivers a high-energy performance of "...Ready for It?" in a black and red asymmetrical catsuit accompanied by female dancers wearing black-dark red gothic leotards. She follows with "Delicate" as cracks appear on the stage. In "Don't Blame Me", Swift is surrounded by light beams. She transitions to "Look What You Made Me Do", with dancers dressed as Swift from the other album eras being trapped in glass boxes. In the purple-themed fifth act, Speak Now, she performs "Enchanted" in a purple ombre ball gown as she is encircled by female dancers wearing lavender-colored dresses. The sixth act, Red, is colored accordingly. Accompanied by dancers, Swift performs "22" in a black hat and white T-shirt with the phrase "a lot going on at the moment", modified from the shirt from the song's music video. At every concert towards the end of the song she gives the hat to a fan pre-selected from the audience; in the film she gives the hat to Bianka Bryant, the daughter of the late American basketball player Kobe Bryant. Next, dressed in a red-to-black romper, she performs "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and "I Knew You Were Trouble" with the male dancers. Donning a red and black ombre coat, she performs "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" on a guitar. Cottagecore takes the stage in the seventh act, Folklore, which features a cabin and staircase setup onstage. Swift wears a white dress and performs "The 1"; "Betty", with her guitar, backup vocalists, and band; "The Last Great American Dynasty", with dancers as period characters; solo performances of "August" and a rock-tinged "Illicit Affairs"; and "My Tears Ricochet" in a funeral procession with female dancers wearing black long-sleeved dresses.
For the eighth act, 1989, Swift wears a pink crop top and skirt while her dancers wear black and white outfits. She sings "Style", "Blank Space", "Shake It Off", and "Bad Blood"; "Blank Space" features female dancers with neon golf clubs destroying an animated car, while female dancers and pyrotechnics accompany "Bad Blood". In the ninth act, Swift appears alone in a maroon dress, performing acoustic versions of two surprise songs: "Our Song" on an acoustic guitar and "You're on Your Own, Kid" on a piano. In the final act, Midnights, dancers carry out cloud decorations as Swift reappears in a purple faux fur coat to sing "Lavender Haze". Removing the coat, she performs "Anti-Hero", alongside a video of a giant version of herself terrorizing a city. During "Midnight Rain", she performs a quick change on-stage, shielded by her dancers' umbrellas, exchanging an oversized light purple and blue T-shirt for a rhinestone-adorned blue bodysuit. Swift and dancers perform "Vigilante Shit" in a burlesque chair dance, followed by "Bejeweled" and "Mastermind" in choreographed moves. They end the show with "Karma" with Swift and dancers in different coloured tinsel fringed jackets, amidst confetti and fireworks. "Long Live" plays during the end credits.
Production Background and development
The Eras Tour began in Glendale, Arizona, in March 2023, and concluded in Vancouver, British Columbia, in December 2024. Each show spans three and a half hours, with a set list of 44 songs divided into 10 distinct acts that conceptually portray Swift's studio albums. The tour was a commercial success and received critical acclaim. It became a cultural and economic phenomenon, bolstered by globally unprecedented ticket demand and fan frenzy.
In 2023, Swift commissioned a recording of the Eras Tour to be theatrically released as a feature film. Sam Wrench, who previously helmed Billie Eilish: Live at the O2 (2023) and Lizzo: Live in Concert (2022), was hired as director, and the film was recorded at the first three of six Los Angeles shows of the tour from August 3 to 5, 2023, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Swift's in-house production company, Taylor Swift Productions, produced the film independently in collaboration with Silent House Productions. Forgoing the involvement of major American film studios allowed Swift to reduce expenses; Puck estimated that the film cost $10–20 million. It was able to be produced, released, and promoted amidst the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike because it received special approval from SAG-AFTRA as a non-AMPTP production that met "the same standards the unions are seeking in their negotiations with the studios". SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland stated that Swift "came to [them] and said she wanted to do this, but only if she could do it the right way under a union contract". Swift announced the concert film on August 31 through her social media accounts and during an appearance on Good Morning America on ABC. Tickets went on sale the same day in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. On September 26, Swift announced that the film would be released globally.
Distribution and ticketing In the U.S., AMC Theatres served as both distributor and exhibitor of The Eras Tour, an unprecedented move in the American film industry, and screened it at least four times per day from Thursday through Sunday during each week of its run. Swift's parents negotiated the term sheet with Adam Aron, CEO of AMC. Ticket prices for standard screenings were preset at $19.89 for adults, a reference to Swift's re-recorded album 1989 (Taylor's Version), and $13.13 for children and seniors, a likely reference to Swift's lucky number, 13. The film was also made available on premium large formats such as IMAX and Dolby Cinema. Each initial ticket purchase included a free poster, while select locations advertised special-themed popcorn and drink containers. In anticipation of high demand following the 2022 Ticketmaster controversy, AMC upgraded its ticket sale systems to accommodate five times its original capacity and temporarily halted sales of most of its other films. Nevertheless, the mobile app crashed shortly after the sales began, and customers were placed in queues to access the website. Within hours of tickets going on sale, the film surpassed $10 million in pre-sales, which box-office analysts likened to the performance of a Marvel film. Global Internet searches for "AMC" spiked more than 100-fold, while AMC's stock experienced a brief 9.2 percent surge. Bloomberg News wrote that news of the film's high ticket sales "boosted stock prices on both sides of the Atlantic".
AMC also served as distributor in other territories, distributing the film internationally and to unaffiliated theater chains for the first time in its history. Cinemark Theatres and other circuits were also granted distribution rights to the film. Chains that screened The Eras Tour include Regal, Cineplex, Cinépolis, Cinemex, and Odeon, in addition to AMC. Variance Films, via a sub-distribution deal, assisted AMC with U.S. bookings at non-AMC locations, and tickets were also available for purchase online via Fandango. The film was reported to screen in 4,000 theaters in North America, as well as more than 8,500 theaters worldwide.