Taylor Swift Calls ‘Eras’ Tour a ‘Core Memory’ as Adam Sandler, Julia Garner and More Celebrate Her Hollywood Premiere

On Wednesday night, the Grove rolled out a massive red carpet for the world premiere of Taylor Swift‘s “Eras Tour” concert film in Los Angeles.

The open-air L.A. mall was completely shut down for the occasion, including all restaurants and shops, which left plenty of room for Swifties donning their best “Bejeweled” fits and friendship bracelets to line both sides of the red carpet and scream the lyrics to Swift’s latest hit, “Cruel Summer.” Instead of the usual Frank Sinatra standards playing through the speakers, “Fearless” was blasting in the parking garage when Variety pulled in.

Then, just before 6 p.m., the moment they’d been waiting for: Taylor Swift — dressed in a gorgeous tanzanite Oscar de la Renta gown (she’s in her “1989” era, after all), accessorized with a diamond necklace and a glamorous curly bob — strutted onto the red carpet.

As the pop superstar posed for cameras in front of the AMC marquee with her tour dancers, fans screamed with glee. The volume only increased as Swift made her way down the carpet to pose for selfies, sign autographs and accept their friendship bracelets.

Taylor Swift with dancers and band at the “The Eras Tour” concert movie world premiere at AMC The Grove 14 Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

In anticipation of the event, some streets around the West Hollywood shopping plaza were closed for much of Wednesday, with security routing attending guests into one entrance. But that didn’t stop massive crowds from forming on sidewalks and crosswalks craning to catch a glimpse of Swift. News helicopters also circled overhead for hours.

Fans captured footage of Swift entering the venue with her mother Andrea just before 5:30 p.m. PT, with the world premiere screening scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. sharp.

In typical Taylor fashion, Easter eggs were abound. Tickets for the event read, “Taylor Swift and AMC Theatres are enchanted to welcome you,” a reference to Swift’s 2010 power ballad “Enchanted,” which gets a magical moment in the middle of the tour’s set list. On the envelope was a nod to “Bejeweled”: “You make the whole place shimmer,” and the golden lights in the trees around the Grove simply enhanced fans’ glow.

The “Eras Tour” film took over 13 (Swift’s lucky number) of AMC’s theaters, which were packed full of giddy fans who were prepared to pass out friendship bracelets and dance in the aisles. Inside the venue, guests enjoyed popcorn and sodas, presented in collective buckets and cups.

Also joining Swift for the premiere was filmmaker Sam Wrench, whose team captured Swift’s epic concert across three shows at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood in August. Also spotted in the theater were Flava Flav, Adam Sandler, Maren Morris and Mariska Hargitay, as well as the Grove owner Rick Caruso.

Taylor Swift and Sam Wrench attend “The Eras Tour” concert movie world premiere at AMC The Grove 14. Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

About an hour before hitting the carpet for the L.A. premiere, Swift announced that the Eras Tour Concert film will debut a day early, with tickets going on sale by 10 a.m. on Thursday for screenings beginning at 6 p.m. that evening, due to “unprecedented demand.”

Captioning the post “premiere day,” Swift wrote: “I can’t really wrap my head around this but…. Look what you genuinely made me do: Due to unprecedented demand we’re opening up early access showings of The Eras Tour Concert Film on Thursday in America and Canada!! As in… tomorrow.”

The film, a cinematic rendering of Swift’s record-breaking, three-hour stadium tour, will open in 3,850 cinemas in the U.S. starting Oct. 13 and is projected to open with at least $100 million at the domestic box office. However, the launch could be as high as $125 million, according to some estimates. Internationally, the movie is opening in 4,150 theaters in 90 countries and aiming to bring in an additional $30 million to $50 million. That would put the film at a worldwide opening of $150 million to $175 million.

“Eras Tour” has already surpassed $100 million in advance ticket sales worldwide (which includes domestic and international), according to its official distributor AMC Theatres. It took less than 24 hours for the film to break AMC’s U.S. record for the highest ticket sales revenue during a single day in the company’s 103-year history. This means it enters theaters as the highest-grossing concert film in history, surpassing the entire run of the genre’s former record holder, 2011’s “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” ($99 million).

The concert film comes after wrapping a U.S. run for the tour, though Swift has added North American dates for fall 2024. She’s currently in the middle of the trek’s international dates, with Asian and European globetrotting to come in the next year.

“Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” film will play at least four showtimes per day on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at every AMC theater location in the United States. The cinema chain promises it will “continue to take steps to reach agreements with additional cinema operators throughout the world to play this spectacular Taylor Swift tour-de-force,” per an AMC press release.