After becoming the second highest grossing concert movie with $250M WW after Michael Jackson’s This Is It, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is making her way into the Middle Kingdom on Dec. 31.
Alibaba Pictures took China rights to the concert movie from Trafalgar Releasing, who was handling offshore distribution for the concert pic’s mega distribution, movie chain AMC. Alibaba is releasing the pic with the state distributor China Film Group.
Keeping all things 13, which is Swift’s lucky number, the announcement was made in Beijing on Friday at 13:13 (or 1:13 p.m.).
How much Eras Tour make is the big question given how China has squashed the promotion of Hollywood movies post-Covid. That said, the 12x Grammy winner reportedly has a fanbase in the PRC and known as “Meimei,” which means both “unlucky” (a nod to her dustup with Kanye West at the MTV Video Music Awards) and “beautiful.” In China, Swift’s followers aren’t Swifties, they’re ‘Meimeis’.
The Eras Tour recently became available to buy and rent digitally on Dec. 13, Swift’s birthday. The fact that the movie is available online could also throw a monkey-wrench in its China box office prospects where piracy rules.
Eras Tour will play across the entirety of the Imax China network. It’s the first time a concert film will be featured in Imax in China. The PRC is Imax’s largest market by number of theatres, with 783 currently in operation.