It just goes to show the power of Taylor Swift as both a celebrity and a brand that The Eras Tour movie failing to clear $100 million in its domestic opening weekend has been viewed as a surprise by many, and it may not even claim the record for October’s highest-grossing debut, either.
That benchmark still belongs to the $96.2 million held by Todd Phillips’ Joker, but the chances of Swifties powering their hero to untold heights remains in their favor, even if we won’t know for sure until the weekend actuals are revealed later today. However, Steven Soderbergh has thrown his hat into the ring to take at least partial credit, and it’s all to do with a black-and-white sci-fi thriller that played on a solitary screen and brought in a strong $6000.
Of course, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker and executive producer of Eddie Alcazar’s latest feature kept his tongue about as far into his cheek as it could possibly go, but you can’t fault his statement (per Deadline) for sheer hilarity.
“When ERAS moved on to our date and we saw all the SWIFTINITY memes, I knew we were going to have a big weekend, but this is beyond our expectations. All of our shows were sold out, so Taylor probably picked up some spillover from us, but we’re in for the long haul, and once again we see there’s plenty of room out there for two good movies showing up at the same time.”
Hypothetically speaking, should The Eras Tour fall $6000 short of beating Joker‘s record – of which there’s an infinitesimal chance of it actually happening – then Soderbergh would be proven entirely correct, which would make it even funnier by extension.