Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Drives Moviegoers to Theaters in Smaller Markets

The Taylor effect was felt in smaller markets as the in-theater concert experience got people back into the theaters!

With reports of record-breaking presales, it was clear that fans were excited to experience the magic of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour in theaters. But the question remained—would Taylor Swift be enough to get more people back to theaters?

Leveraging our admissions data, we calculated the average movie theater visitation of the last four weeks before The Eras Tour movie premiered, and compared that average against the foot traffic of the weekend when The Eras Tour movie debuted (10.13.23 - 10.15.23) to see the impact Taylor had on markets.

When looking at the top ten markets throughout the country that saw the biggest increase in theater visitation—compared to the prior 4 weeks average—it became apparent that smaller markets saw the biggest impact. It's possible that those markets had the biggest Swifties, but it's also likely that getting to the live concert may have proven more difficult for those markets. And so, the fans capitalized on the opportunity to join the concert experience from their local theater!

The small market of Ottumwa-Kirksville in Iowa showed up for Taylor Swift as the foot traffic increased by a whopping 63% when compared to the last four weeks. Our second biggest increase came from another small market, Elmira in New York State, as people came to theaters 56% more than the last four weeks. The small market trend continued as the top 10 markets were all smaller DMAs!

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