Swift's fans swap the stage for the silver screen

When Beijing native Jin Yu arrived for a special screening of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour — the highest-grossing concert film of all time — she was surprised to see many audience members were dressed up, waving glow sticks, swaying and loudly singing along with the performer.

"It felt like I was attending a solo concert by Swift for almost three hours, but it only cost 100 yuan ($14).In addition, you could take out your smartphone to take photos or videos. That's usually forbidden when watching a movie in a theater," she says.

Under the helm of Emmy award-winning director Sam Wrench, the movie follows the 34-year-old pop icon and her dancers onstage, as Swift performs 40 songs from 10 albums during her 2023-24 The Eras Tour.

The film has grossed over $261 million at box offices worldwide, including more than 78 million yuan on the Chinese mainland, according to statistics from trackers Box Office Mojo and Beacon. The 169-minute-long movie has also become the highest-grossing imported documentary of all time on the Chinese mainland.

With The Eras Tour breaking the Guinness World Record for the highest-grossing music tour in history, Alibaba Pictures — which is known for importing such acclaimed foreign movies as Green Book, Bohemian Rhapsody, Capernaum and Departures — recognized the film's prospects, facilitated its entry into the Chinese market, and helped to promote.

Since its release in domestic theaters on New Year's Eve, the movie has received an impressive score of 9.3 points out of 10 on Douban, one of China's most popular review sites, due to its spectacular visual effects and Swift's superstardom.

Song Zhe, a 29-year-old short-video director from Henan province, is one of the Chinese fans who was so captivated by the documentary's fresh and innovative format that he purchased two tickets for consecutive screenings.

"I have rarely experienced such an exciting and immersive movie-watching experience before," says Song, who works in Beijing.

"When it came to some of the hottest Swift songs, the audience spontaneously stood in the empty space below the big screen, and started jumping and singing along. You couldn't even hear Swift's voice — only the cheers and shouts of the fans," he recalls.

The documentary was filmed during Swift's performance at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, a venue that has hosted many headline-grabbing events, not least of which was the 2022 Super Bowl. Its visual effects are also impressive, allowing theatergoers to see close-ups of Swift on the big screen.

Zhi Feina, a professor at the Chinese National Academy of Arts and an industry observer, says that the overwhelming success of the movie has helped many young people to socialize.

Although this format is new to Chinese theatergoers, Zhi says that similar films that document popular events have already become a regular genre overseas. For example, Japan has introduced ODS (Other Digital Stuff) screenings since 2005, which release recorded versions of stage plays, such as Kabuki, musicals and dramas, as well as concert recordings and sports broadcasts.

"China has more than 80,000 screens in over 12,000 cinemas, but most of the seats remain unsold during the comparatively slow box office season. Swift's movie could serve as a good example for domestic theater operators to learn how to attract a larger audience," says Zhi.

Sha Dan, a curator at the China Film Archive and a veteran critic, views the movie's popularity as a signal to the Chinese film market to seek a breakthrough in attracting the generation born between the late 1990s and 2000s.

He also mentions that one of the top concerns among insiders in recent years has been the growing trend for young audiences to shift to short-video platforms instead of going to cinema.

"If Chinese distributors could import more movies like this, the local market would become more culturally diversified, and cinemas could revive their functions as places for socializing and entertainment," he says.