A symphony of senses: The enchanting cinematic world of Taylor Swift could bring back the concert film genre

Concert films offer audiences a unique and immersive experience, often surpassing the live concert experience; the success of ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ could be a potential catalyst for a renewed interest in such films as a communal theatre experience

So Barbenheimer was the big ticket of 2023, not some spandex-suited meta-human fighting an overblown CGI battle in the Big Apple. Just as the bean counters seem to have figured out what draws audiences to theatres (good luck with that), comes the mass hysteria of the screening of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.

The film is directed by Sam Wrench, who has helmed other concert movies including Billie Eilish: Live at the O2 earlier this year and Lizzo: Live in Concert (2022). The film documents Swift’s The Eras Tour, her sixth concert tour and represents Swift’s musical journey over 10 acts.

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is path-breaking in many ways. After failing to reach an agreement with studios, Swift directly went to the theatres and signed an agreement with them.

Her announcement of the movie led to the studios scrambling to reschedule their releases. There was an Exorswift (yes it does not have the ring of Barbenheimer), which brought the release date of The Exorcist: Believer forward from its multi-million-dollar campaign ready date of Friday the 13th in October.

All the pundits hold the concert movie as the new gold standard for the communal theatre going experience, and it well might be. In India, there have been limited screenings of Korean boy band’s BTS’ concert movies, which generates a kind of passion that willy-nilly sweeps one along whether one is a fan or not.

The rock concert movie gives the fan a concert experience in a theatre. Some might even say a better-than concert experience — come on are you going to say no to a 360-degree view, crisp edits, tight close ups, intimate behind the scenes sequences, good, comfortable seats, air conditioning and clean toilets?

There is an urban legend about the screening of Woodstock (1970), the Academy Award winning documentary about the iconic counter-culture festival, which counts Thelma Schoonmaker and Martin Scorsese among its editors.