By Abigail Olear

“It’s been a long time coming, but…”

“Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” hit theaters Oct. 13, bringing Swift’s global phenomenon to silver screens nationwide.

Shot over three nights at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California and directed by Sam Wrench, the film captures the magic Swift brought to arenas this summer as she performed songs from her decade spanning career.

 From “Our Song,” to, “All Too Well,” and “Karma,” all of the singer’s eras are covered.

“The main thing we’re trying to do is provide the theatrical audience with the best seat in the house,” John Ross, the re-recording mixer on “The Eras Tour,” said in an interview with The New York Times.

Much like the tour itself, the film has broken records. A press release from AMC revealed it took less than 24 hours for “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” to break the existing U.S. record for the highest ticket-sales revenue during a single day.

Due to unprecedented demand for the tour, many Swifties were left ticketless after Ticketmaster’s sale. The film gives these fans who didn’t get tickets, like sophomore finance major Sophia Pliner,  a chance to experience Swift’s tour in a different way.

“I was very excited because it gave me a glimpse of what it was like to see her perform her tour live,” Pliner said. “Although it was nothing like being there in person, it was still really cool to see her sing most of my favorite songs and how she performed them to her audiences. 

Due to the nature of the movie and Swift’s eccentric fans, AMC released guidelines prior to the movie’s premiere. The theater encouraged movie-goers to sing, dance, trade friendship bracelets and take photos as long as they were not disturbing other viewer’s experiences. Shortly after the movie’s release, videos of Swifties singing and dancing in front of the screen circulated around social media. 

“I was really hoping our theater would not be like that, because I was going to see a movie, not going to another concert,” said Avery Zellweger, junior kinesiology major. “I was very happy to see nobody in the theater [that she attended] get up and head down to the front during our show.”

Both Pliner and Zellweger had similar theater experiences. They and other fans sang along while remaining seated.

The actual tour’s run time clocked in at 3 hours and 15 minutes. To many fans’ annoyance, the film cut songs like “Long Live,” “cardigan,” “‘tis the damn season” and more to reduce the runtime to about 2 hours and 48 minutes.

“I was very sad to not hear ‘The Archer,’ which is such a beautiful song,” Pliner said. “I was especially upset about ‘cardigan’ being cut from the setlist in the movie because it is one of my favorite songs and it is very popular.”

Despite this, fans generally enjoyed the film. “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” is in theaters now.

Featured Image: Taylor performs “Lover” during the film, shown on Oct. 14, 2023. Photo by Abigail Olear.