Let’s rewind the clocks back about two years, shall we? In fall 2023, the box office was seeing a variety of titles doing modest business, with David Gordon Green’s Exorcist: Believer, Cal Brunker’s Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie, and Kevin Greutert’s Saw X being the biggest titles on the big screen… and then Taylor Swift arrived at the party. Sam Wrench’s concert film following The Eras Tour arrived in nearly 4,000 locations in the domestic market, and it successfully shattered records. It was a huge deal that saw the industry change the way it considered the potential of the genre.
Now, Taylor Swift is back and dominating the box office again – albeit in a different way. The Official Release Party of a Showgirl is not a conventional movie, but it still dominated the theatrical marketplace for the last three days and sits on top of this weekend’s Top 10. You can check out all of the numbers in the chart below and join me after for analysis.
|
TITLE |
WEEKEND GROSS |
DOMESTIC GROSS |
LW |
THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1. Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party Of A Showgirl* |
$33,000,000 |
$33,000,000 |
N/A |
3,702 |
|
2. One Battle After Another |
$11,125,000 |
$42,751,000 |
1 |
3,634 |
|
3. The Smashing Machine* |
$6,000,170 |
$6,000,170 |
N/A |
3,345 |
|
4. Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie |
$5,200,000 |
$21,609,000 |
2 |
3,507 |
|
5. The Conjuring: Last Rites |
$4,050,000 |
$167,805,000 |
4 |
2,753 |
|
6. Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Infinity Castle |
$3,500,000 |
$124,634,000 |
3 |
2,547 |
|
7. Avatar: The Way Of Water |
$3,194,000 |
$687,619,767 |
N/A |
2,140 |
|
8. The Strangers: Chapter 2 |
$2,800,000 |
$10,692,000 |
5 |
2,690 |
|
9. Good Boy* |
$2,253,000 |
$2,253,000 |
N/A |
1,650 |
|
10. The Long Walk |
$1,700,000 |
$31,924,000 |
7 |
1,930 |
Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party Of A Showgirl Doesn’t Quite Do Eras Tour Business, But It Was a Major Big Screen Event Nonetheless
When Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour dropped in theaters, it became an instant phenomenon. In the span of one weekend, it almost outgrossed the entire theatrical run of the previous concert movie that had been considered the biggest of all time (Jon M Chu’s Justin Bieber: Never Say Never), and it demonstrated the incredible pop culture power of the singer at the center of the film. It made $93.2 million in its first Friday-to-Sunday domestically, and finished its worldwide run earning $261.4 million.
This weekend, Swift once again showed off her immense draw as a superstar – though it can’t be said that the numbers are as impressive as what we saw back in 2023.
Per The Numbers, Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party Of A Showgirl made $33 million, which is not Eras Tour money, but it certainly was more than enough for it to dominate the Top 10. The special event, running 89 minutes, includes the world premiere of the new music video for “The Fate Of Ophelia” alongside various behind-the-scenes looks at the making of the new album The Life Of A Showgirl, which dropped on Friday.
In addition to playing 3,702 theaters in the United States and Canada, the event was also made available in foreign markets where it earned $13 million. To save you doing the quick math, that means that The Official Release Party Of A Showgirl has already made $46 million globally.
The tickets sold domestically are enough to place the big screen event as the 18th biggest debut of 2025 thus far, as it arrived bigger than Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later ($30 million) and Nisha Ganatra’s Freakier Friday ($28.6 million).
Given this win, it certainly won’t be long until the next Taylor Swift music project comes to the big screen, as they clearly give a significant boost to the box office marketplace. Exactly what form it will take, however, is an open question that awaits an answer.
One Battle After Another Experiences A Soft Weekend-To-Weekend Drop As It Settles For Second Place
When Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another arrived in theaters at the end of September, it stirred up a bit of consternation in the industry. With the star-power of Leonardo DiCaprio as one of its principal box office draws, the film easily won the weekend box office by earning $22 million, but that then saw analysts point to the fact that the movie cost somewhere between $130-175 million to produce (per Variety). Its status as a financial victory was left up for debate – and now a strong second weekend has added a new wrinkle to the conversation.
In addition to featuring the talents of DiCaprio, One Battle After Another has also earned a great deal of attention because of overwhelming critical acclaim and positive buzz, and those are the kinds of things that can help a movie not quickly disappear after a hyped opening weekend. In this particular case, the film saw its ticket sales go down only 49 percent, which is a big win and a suggestion of staying power as we get deeper into October.
In addition to the multi-genre epic earning raves from critics (I personally gave One Battle After Another five stars in my CinemaBlend review), audiences are loving it too, as indicated by the impressive “A” grade delivered via CinemaScore surveys. That positivity led to strong word of mouth and $11.1 million tickets sold at the box office in the last three days. To date, the feature has made $42.8 million domestically.
It’s also worth noting that the film has crossed a milestone abroad. While one could make the strong argument that One Battle After Another is an extremely American movie, its draw overseas has actually been stronger than at home. It has made $58.9 million from foreign markets thus far, which means that its worldwide box office total has crossed into nine figures ($101.7 million to be exact).
Dwayne Johnson’s Return To Drama In The Smashing Machine Debuts In Third Place
This weekend, the biggest new narrative feature arriving in cinemas was Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, and while the movie has earned star Dwayne Johnson high marks for his dramatic turn as MMA fighter Mark Kerr, its box office performance is not being graded as the same kind of success. Following festival debuts this fall, A24 put the new film in 3,345 locations this weekend, but it only managed to make $6 million and settled for third place in the Top 10.
The release was a big swing for the indie distributor, but it’s not connecting immediately. It may find long term success as we get into awards season and Johnson is potentially given a push for Best Actor consideration, but we’ll have to wait and see what campaign the film ends up getting.
Looking into the near future, we’ll definitely have a new title to crown as the box office champion next weekend given that The Official Release Party of a Showgirl was a limited engagement – but what will it be? The new 2025 movies vying for the spot will be Derek Cianfrance’s Roofman, Joachim Rønning’s Tron: Ares, and Bill Condon’s Kiss Of The Spider Woman, but you’ll have to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to see which title ends up on top.