Taylor Swift is getting the marketing boost she never needed out of her Travis Kelce era

By all accounts, Taylor Swift's "Eras Tour" film, which debuts Oct. 13, already is poised to become the top-grossing concert chronicle of all time.

It needs no publicity boost. And yet because we're in Taylor's World, a PR infusion is just what "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" movie is getting.

The cameras cut to Taylor 17 times during the Kansas City Chiefs-New York Jets game Sunday night, giving her film another dose of marketing less than two weeks before the door swing open at theaters around the world.

"She’s on top of the world, that's the simplest way to put it," says Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Box Office Pro, which tracks movie industry trends. "Her acumen as an incredibly smart business person has been on display for a long time, it's only been added to now."

The blitz comes courtesy of Swift's recent appearances at Chiefs games, where the singer has been spotted cheering alongside Donna Kelce, the mother of star Super Bowl tight end − and impressively passable "Saturday Night Live" host − Travis Kelce.

While neither celebrity has been public about what their friendship is all about, the end result has been a non-stop media spotlight just as Swift is looking to pack theaters for her film.

Is the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce romance a publicity stunt?

Some have crowed that the pairing is but a publicity stunt to boost sales, where others, including TV star Valerie Bertinelli, have posted impassioned defenses of the duo.

“Can all of you Negative Nellies just stop? Stop!” the “One Day at a Time” actress said on TikTok over the weekend. “Let the rest of us enjoy watching two successful, funny, talented, incredibly gorgeous human beings − let us enjoy watching them fall in love.”

Responded one fan: "100%. Like they really need a PR move. Really! Respectfully enjoying."

Taylor Swift's concert movie is set to hit more than 7,500 movie screens worldwide

Regardless of the genuineness of the relationship, the buzz surrounding it is bound to pour rocket fuel on an already-raging fire. Initially, the movie was slated to play at more than 4,000 theaters around North America, but recently European showings have been added that will bring that total to around 7,500 movie theaters globally.

That puts "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" on par with some of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters. July's release of Tom Cruise's latest "Mission Impossible" installment also was in around 4,000 theaters.

Movie industry experts predict that Swift's concert film, which took in $26 million in pre-sales the day tickets were announced, could make more than $100 million in its opening weekend, obliterating the totals for previous top-grossing concert films such as Michael Jackson's "This Is It" (2009) and Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never" (2011).

AMC, the film’s distributor, reported the highest revenue day for advance ticket sales in the theater chain's 103-year history when Swift's film was announced.

Are American fans heading overseas to catch Taylor Swift's Eras tour?

The hype over the film and Swift in general these days is also helping drive up prices on the secondary market for her already sold-out shows in Latin America, experts say. The tour resumes Nov. 9 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, before continuing to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo, Brazil.

StubHub reports that so far 50% of the sales for Swift's international dates have come from the U.S.

Why are tickets to Taylor Swift's 'Eras Tour' movie selling so well?

At this point, Swift is such a global cultural phenomenon that she is likely bringing both devoted fans and the curious into theaters, says Robbins.

"The biggest X factor (in terms of the movie's box-office take) is figuring out how many of her non-fan base will come see it, a bit like how 'Barbenheimer' cross-promoted 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer' to different audiences," he says of two recent and wildly different blockbuster movies that came out on the same day. "That's kind of what might happen here. Taylor is all over the media, and that likely pulls in people who want to be part of the cultural moment."

Robbins also adds that lofty box-office expectations are in part because ticket prices are higher today than when Jackson and Bieber put out their films. Tickets for "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" are priced at $13.13 for children and $19.89 for adults, with their $16 average "being a bit higher than what most films bring in," he says.

Taylor Swift and Beyoncé could change the movie theater business with their concert films, experts say

Swift's popularity could have a similarly seismic impact on the movie theater business, which teetered on irrelevance during the pandemic and continues to grapple with shifting viewer habits. The announcement by Swift that she was releasing her film on Oct. 13 caused producers of "The Exorcist: Believer" and other titles to change their release date as not to compete with "The Eras Tour."

With fellow music superstar Beyoncé announcing Monday that a concert film of her recently-completed Renaissance world tour would also be coming to the big screen on Dec. 1, theater owners have a rare opportunity not only to make money as the Hollywood actors strike roils the industry but also noticeably shift their business strategies.

"You’re going to see this movie really turn into a form of experiential marketing, much like the tailgating parties of the concerts themselves," says Bob Mitchell, adjunct instructor at American University’s Kogod School of Business, of the audience attracted to the Swift film. "Well, movie chains aren’t used to that at all, they’re focused solely on real estate, on putting butts in seats."

Mitchell says new opportunities for theaters could include providing unique content from Swift for her fans, accessible only via the theater company's app, or perhaps selling Swift merchandise at the theater.

But that remains in the land of possibilities. For the moment, the main person benefitting directly from Swift's incredible ubiquity would be Swift.

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