MILWAUKEE — The Taylor Swift Eras Tour Concert Movie is officially in theaters. Before it even opened, the movie made sparks fly, exceeding $100 million in presale ticket sales globally. The gold rush is expected to continue into opening weekend.
While you may not first think of seeing the movie at the historic Oriental Theater in Milwaukee, Milwaukee Film programming coordinator Abbie Esterline said the theater will leave you with an enchanted experience. You may even leave saying, 'Today was a fairytale.'
"This lobby almost feels like the lobby she danced in in the delicate music video," Esterline said of the space.
As the official Eras Tour expert with Milwaukee Film, you could say Esterline is the mastermind behind bringing the film to the small, local theater.
"I don't want to take full credit for it," Esterline said with a chuckle. "It was something that I was really like this could be really great for us, and thankfully my managers trust me and they also recognize that we had really great luck with the Barbie Movie and this will be a similar demographic," she said.
From Barbie to Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, movie theaters are capitalizing on the power of the female dollar.
"A lot of women are leaning into being proud of being a girl, and I think that's really awesome. And I hope studios look at that and are like we have this group of people that we haven't always been paying attention to and they do care and have opinions," Esterline shared.
If Barbie is any indicator, Esterline said she expects the Eras Tour concert movie to be a great weekend for them at the Oriental Theater.
"I'm hoping that people will in who weren't able to get tickets at an AMC theater right away and they can come and see our beautiful theater and want to see more movies here and look into our programming that we have going on," Esterline said.
Locally-owned Marcus Theaters will also be showing the superstar's film.
"Taylor Swift coming in is really going to give us a ramp-up in business. It's really going to drive people back into the movie theaters," said Marcus Majestic Cinema General Manager Andy High.
Marcus theaters will have friendship-bracelet-making stations (a fan-inspired style from the tour expected to carry over to theaters), Eras Tour-inspired photo backdrops, and special concessions merchandise.
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.
