what is the highest grossing concert film in-theater

Photo Credit: Taylor Swift (YouTube)

What’s the highest grossing in-theater concert film? Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’ concert has nudged Michael Jackson’s ‘This Is it’ out of the top spot.

AMC Theatres has confirmed that Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ concert film is the highest grossing film in box office history, among concert & documentary films. The concert film already held the box office record for highest-grossing film, earning $8.7 million in China after opening on December 31. The film’s combined international and domestic performances, the film has now made $261.6 million globally.

That record surpasses the previous record holder, Michael Jackson’s ‘This Is It’, which earned $261.2 million globally after its release in 2009. The film was nominated for the inaugural Cinematic & Box Office Achievement award at the Golden Globes.

“On behalf of all of us at AMC Theatres, I send my congratulations and eternal gratitude to Taylor Swift for her remarkable record-setting box office performance with Taylor Swift, The Eras Tour concert film,” says Adam Aron, Chairman & CEO of AMC Entertainment.

“Her spectacular performance delighted fans around the world and serves as another strong reminder about the power of extraordinary filmmaking and magic of movie theaters.”

Chinese theater-goers affectionately refer to Taylor Swift as ‘Meimei’ and lined up to see the concert film over the new year. Swift topped the charts in China last year as the top-selling foreign artist, with Midnights selling nearly 250,000 copies in China on its first day of sales. She’s also one of the few foreign stars to have more than 10 million followers on Weibo—the Chinese version of Twitter.

The release of the ‘Eras Tour’ concert film in China is one of the few American films to make the cut for foreign films released in China. In the past, 30 to 40 American films were released per year in China, but after the pandemic that number has dwindled drastically. In 2021, only 28 American films debuted in the country. By August 2022, only 18 American films debuted in China.