A Taylor Swift listening party, featuring personal reflections from the artist and music videos with lyrics from her new album The Life of a Showgirl, was the highest grossing picture in U.S. and Canadian cinemas this weekend.

The sing-along movie, titled The Official Release Party of a Showgirl and distributed by AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., took in US$33 million in ticket sales. That compares with a median estimate of US$35 million from industry tracker Boxoffice Pro.

The picture generated an additional US$13 million internationally, according to AMC, which noted that the event was announced only two weeks ago and didn’t host the Thursday night previews or Friday morning screenings that other films typically do.

It’s the second Swift picture released by AMC, whose chief executive officer, Adam Aron, enjoys a friendship with Swift’s parents. In 2023, AMC’s Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film generated US$261.7 million at the global box office, making it the most successful concert film of all time. That picture opened to US$93.2 million in the U.S. and Canada.

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Swift’s new movie propped up an otherwise slow weekend for cinemas. The Official Release Party of a Showgirl opened against adult-skewing pictures — The Smashing Machine from independent distributor A24 and the second weekend of One Battle After Another from Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.’s film studio.