Review: What’s it like to experience Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in cinemas?

The movie was filmed during a concert on the US leg of Taylor Swift’s latest tour and is now available for international fans to experience in cinemas.

The Eras Tour Concert Movie was released in UK cinemas on Friday 13 October and it has been very popular with audiences on its opening weekend.

Last Sunday evening, our writer Ciara Fantom visited her local Odeon cinema to watch the long-awaited “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Concert Film” and this is what she thought about the movie and her cinema experience.

Upon entering the foyer there was a 6ft film poster decorated with balloons to welcome you to the cinema. When I approached the tills, I was greeted by hundreds of Eras Tour popcorn buckets and cups which could be purchased for £19.89 (I wonder why…). Unfortunately, the pink tumbler collectible cups were completely sold out from pre-orders which was disappointing but I was happy to not be walking out empty-handed.

The ticket for the screening was also £19.89 (with no student or concession discount available) which did seem a little expensive considering that’s the price of seeing a small to medium sized artist live in concert. However, I was of course more than happy to pay it in order to see the film. 

Before we were allowed to enter the screen, we had to be informed of the rules of the showing. Odeon staff confirmed that we were allowed to sing and dance along as long as it didn’t affect any other showings in the surrounding screens. We were also told that we were allowed to record clips of the film but not for an excessive length of time.

After just under half an hour’s worth of adverts and trailers (including a first look at the new Mean Girls Musical Movie coming to our screens next year!), the onscreen countdown began. The film started with drone footage of the outside/ top of SoFi Stadium with the opening of ‘Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince’ soundtracking it. Taylor’s dancers came out with massive floating shells on their shoulders and eventually revealed Taylor from underneath them before the song’s chorus kicked in and she began performing her ‘Lover’ era segment.

One thing I did really enjoy was the sound and video quality at Odeon. I’d never actually visited an Odeon Cinema before but as it’s such a successful cinema company, I was expecting it to be high quality.

Representatives from Odeon said: “With our full-frequency network of advanced speakers, the opening beat ‘n’ brass of ‘Shake It Off ‘ will drop like thunderbolts thrown from Valhalla, while the immersive surround sound makes it feel like you’re right in the thick of California’s SoFi stadium.” It’s true, the quality of the sound and video really did make it feel like you were in the stadium with her and the 70,000 attendees. 

Taylor performed songs from 9/10 of her albums by playing each era individually. She began with Lover then moved onto Fearless, Evermore, Reputation, Speak Now, Red, Folklore, 1989 and finished with her latest release, Midnights. As you can tell, she didn’t play anything from her debut self titled album and she only played 1 song, ‘Enchanted’, from the Speak Now era but with the length of the show already, I’m not surprised she wasn’t able to fit anything else in! She didn’t play the eras in chronological order but the order that they were performed did seem to work really well. She didn’t start off with the slower more lyric-focused tracks from Folklore & Evermore and finish with high energy songs from Reputation & 1989 but she managed to find a way to keep contrasting her set and moving between eras in a way that flowed and allowed the audience to have a new concert experience they’d never had before. 

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is the highest grossing tour of 2023 and is dominating box offices with the concert movie.”

Forbes

I won’t spoil too much in case you haven’t seen the film yet or are waiting until you see the concert but you certainly are in for a treat. Most of you reading this will probably have seen the Reputation Stadium Tour film on Netflix but if you haven’t it’s definitely another must-watch. Somehow Taylor managed to up the level of the show even further from the fantastic Reputation Tour in 2018. The costume and set changes alone will completely blow you away, never mind the adaptations of specific songs for performance purposes.

At the end of the show when the credits were rolling, there were lots of videos filmed by Swifties who attended the tour showing off their outfits, their queuing shenanigans or just enjoying the show. This made it feel like it really was for the fans and it confirmed that being a Swiftie is the best decision you will ever make (I’m biased but that doesn’t mean it’s not true!). 

Upon leaving the cinema, the staff were handing out free A3 Eras Tour Posters to everyone who watched the film which I thought was a lovely touch and made the highly priced ticket a bit more reasonable. Overall, I had an amazing experience with both the film and the Odeon cinema but no matter where you see the film, you will have an incredible time! 

There are screenings in Nottingham cinemas including Broadway, Savoy Cinemas, Cineworld and Showcase Cinema de Lux.

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Concert Movie is in cinemas from Thursday-Sunday till November 5.