Taylor Swift movie becomes major theatrical event without NFL cooperation – Deadline

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The concert film documenting Taylor Swift’s hugely successful tour has already sold more than $100 million in advance sales and is on track to set huge opening weekend numbers when it opens Friday.

Stratospheric level of interest Taylor Swift: The Elus Tour The film was a success despite a marketing campaign that ignored the usual patterns of mainstream Hollywood films. As of Oct. 6, ad tracking firm iSpot reported that the film’s main TV spot had aired on national linear TV just 38 times, including 17 times when Swift was in Kansas City to support coverage. -I discovered that it was broadcast after the Chiefs first appeared in the game. His wife is Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Of those 17 of his broadcasts, seven were live games or appearances on his NFL Network. Capitol One’s “Multiple Taylors” ad also features the following tagline: Elas tour Broadcast 15 times starting September 23rd.

The level of presence on television is super mario bros movie‘s TV ad was aired more than 8,000 times during the same pre-release phase. Other major releases routinely air in the thousands, as studios continue to rely on the traditional shotgun method of TV buys.

But the NFL admits it is “leaning” into the “Tavis” phenomenon, and the most powerful forces in the media business tend to get results by throwing their weight to the full.of new york post reported last week that the league has turned to television partners to provide free advertising space during pregame shows. In supporting plugins, era He said the league apparently thought it would increase the chances of Swift being featured in the halftime show at Super Bowl III in February.

While it makes some sense for the league to favor Swift, it also goes against some elements of the film’s release.

The first is the distributor of. The Elas Tour is not a traditional studio that buys dozens of TV ads to promote its films during highly rated NFL games. In fact, it was AMC Entertainment, the top movie theater chain, that outbid several bidders for the film, despite not having extensive distribution experience. (AMC, like Swift’s team, steadfastly refuses to talk about its approach to marketing.)

Several film marketing veterans told Deadline that AMC won for a number of fairly obvious reasons, in addition to agreeing to a much lower service fee than the 20% typically demanded by studios. It is said that there is. With hundreds of millions of social media followers, Swift has mastered the art of mobilizing her base. Like Beyoncé, who will have her own concert film released in December, Swift is essentially beyond television, save for one-offs like performing on TV shows. saturday night live.

RELATED: ‘Taylor Swift: The Ella Tour’ is a blockbuster hit with opening weekend forecast of $100-125 million

“She doesn’t need the NFL,” the studio veteran told Deadline. “Her fan base is 55% of America, and her community has been talking about her and her tour for months. This film is a celebration for them.”

Even more absurd is the theory that Swift concocted the romance strictly as a way to sell movie tickets. The idea that they’ll have to rely on movie ticket sales lends credence to the idea that the pop star will reportedly make more than $1 billion in tour proceeds for Ella. No matter how much of a huge box office success this movie makes, even with an opening in the $60 million to $70 million range, it will instantly become the biggest concert movie of all time, but this movie will be much bigger than any other big release. It is very cheap to produce and sell compared to other movies. This is also part of the overall Taylorverse finances.

As the theatrical film market becomes competitive, strikes change the flow of new releases, and existential questions linger. Taylor Swift: The Elus Tour It has become a fragrant oil. AMC may not be an experienced company when it comes to distribution, but it has a huge footprint in theaters in the U.S. and abroad, and its films are widely promoted on and off screen. Earned media and social, on the other hand, are doing a surprising amount of lifting.

RELATED: ‘Taylor Swift: Ella Tour’ concert film to be released in theaters worldwide

Of course, some marketing partners continued to push for television, and football seemed to be the most sensible home, especially with the Kelce phenomenon. An updated version of Capital One’s 2022 Swift Message was broadcast during at least five NFL games, as well as NFL-related studio programming, according to iSpot. It was also broadcast nine times during college football games and Major League Baseball playoff telecasts.

No matter how excited I am, Elas tour Despite the buzz surrounding the release, a person close to the sales side of a broadcast network that broadcasts NFL games told Deadline that the phenomenon is a little removed from the league’s beer and truck billboards. It is said that it has become. The audience for Swift and Beyoncé’s concert films “doesn’t directly correlate” to marketers’ general desire to get in front of NFL fans, the person added.

“Male viewers are on the edge of Taylor,” a marketer told Deadline. “They never promoted this movie.”