Christopher Nolan said Hollywood studios missed out by not releasing Taylor Swift‘s concert film, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, since she distributed it directly through AMC Theatres.
During a recent discussion at a City University of New York event, the Oppenheimer filmmaker noted how the pop star bypassed studios and teamed directly with AMC Theatres to bring her movie to the big screen.
Nolan spoke alongside his Oppenheimer producing partner and wife, Emma Thomas, who said that studios have been too skittish about releasing movies in the streaming era.
“Taylor Swift is about to show the studios, because her concert film is not being distributed by the studios, it’s being distributed by a theater owner, AMC, and it’s going to make an enormous amount of money,” Nolan said. “And this is the thing, this is a format, this is a way of seeing things and sharing stories, or sharing experiences, that’s incredibly valuable. And if they don’t want it, somebody else will. So that’s just the truth of it.”
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour went on to open to a record $92.8 million domestically and $123.5 million globally during the Oct. 13-15 weekend. It also became the top-grossing concert film of all time in North America, and the second-biggest October domestic debut, not adjusted for inflation.
As for his own record-breaking blockbuster, Oppenheimer, which debuted on one of the biggest box office weekends ever with Barbie, Nolan has his own take on the complicated theatrical business and where it’s headed.
“Any time a film succeeds that isn’t expected to succeed, it’s an encouraging thing for Hollywood.… It’s encouraging for filmmakers,” Nolan explained. “There’s always the tension in Hollywood between the familiar and what is predicted to make money, and that’s the meat and potatoes of how the studios stay in business, but there’s always this desire [among] audiences for something new, something fresh.”
He added, “Any time a film that isn’t expected to succeed, and we vastly exceeded our highest expectations for the project [Oppenheimer], it’s encouraging everyone, it’s encouraging for the studios and the filmmakers. That tension, that reality…between commerce and art, that formula never changes in Hollywood, because it’s just a reality of the industrial process. Films are very expensive to make.”
Pamela McClintock contributed to this report.
