MILWAUKEE – Superstar Taylor Swift has sold out stadiums for most of her career, now she’ll be bringing fans to movie theaters. ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ is a concert film from a performance at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California.
Greg Marcus is the CEO of the Marcus Corporation, which owns Marcus Theaters. Marcus says they’re leaning into it.
“We wanted it to be like a concert experience. We asked our customers to take their cell phones out and take pictures with their friends. Do the things you would do at a concert,” said Marcus.
Marcus declined to comment on how the profits will be shared between Swfit, the producers of the film, and the movie theater companies. But said that in an age where most popular content is streamed into people’s homes, movie theaters need to adapt to opportunities that make people excited to come to the theater.
“A movie theater can be used for so many things. It doesn’t just have to be someone as big as Taylor Swift, but not every movie is ‘Barbie’ either,” explained Marcus. “It doesn’t mean we don’t show them, because people want to see them.”
The term ‘Swifitienomics’ was coined over the summer from the millions of dollars brought to the major cities by Swift’s concerts, and a similar effect is expected with the concert movie. The film has already sold $100 million in advance tickets and is expected to stay in theaters for several weeks. Marcus says their efforts to show the movie are trying to replicate the experience for fans who couldn’t make it.
“If you couldn’t get to the concert, I wouldn’t say it’s better in the movie theater. It’s just different than actually seeing it live.”
Marcus used the word ‘upswing’ to describe the state of the movie theater industry today, and a desire to see any piece of content in theaters is a sign of that.
“Try to figure out what you want to watch on streaming on any given night. That’s because you have unlimited choice. In theaters, we have a limited number of screens. We can highlight a few films a week. And that is great for a studio because it shines the light on one piece of content at a time.”
The Marcus Corporation was founded in Wisconsin. Their headquarters are in Milwaukee.
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