Which streaming service will get ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,’ Apple, Disney, Netflix, or Amazon?

With the Barbenheimer phenomenon long behind us, the film industry’s last great hope for box office success in 2023: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.

What’s unique about this film is that until August, few knew it would even exist. Taylor Swift’s live Eras Tour has been journeying across North America since March and is breaking concert records like there’s no tomorrow, but few suspected that a filmed version of the event would be released anytime soon—much less on October 12, more than a month before the Eras Tour concert itself comes to an end.

Yet in late August, Swift and AMC Theaters announced that the theater chain would show the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour film. What’s more, it would also act as the distributor. The unusual move comes after Swift allegedly was in talks with major Hollywood studios, who wanted to wait until 2025 to distribute the film. Swift, on the other hand, wanted it out sooner—now—and her team offered the struggling AMC the opportunity to distribute it. 

According to a report from Puck, AMC CEO Adam Aron personally negotiated the deal that would see the chain serve as the distributor of the film both to its own theaters and to other chains and independent cinemas. And the reported terms of the deal are much more generous than Hollywood studios usually give cinemas. Swift’s team is offering theaters 43% of the ticket gross for her film from Day 1 (with tickets costing $19.89 each in honor of Swift’s upcoming 1989 rerelease album). Usually, Hollywood studios only offer cinemas 15% to 30% of the gross ticket revenue in the first weeks of a film’s release.

But the terms of the deal also stipulate that after 13 weeks, Swift can put Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour on streaming platforms. That means that the earliest that Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour will be available on streaming is Friday, January 12, 2024. But which streamer will get it? 

No deal between Swift and any streaming platform has been announced yet, but there are four likely candidates: Netflix, Disney, Apple, and Amazon. Here’s how each scenario could play out, given that Swift has a history with all four.

‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ on Netflix

Netflix is the most well-known streamer and has the global reach Swift would want a streaming distributor to have. Swift has also had multiple deals with Netflix before. 

On New Year’s Eve 2018, Netflix distributed the Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour concert film, having only announced it less than three weeks earlier. And on January 31, 2020, Netflix released Miss Americana, a documentary film that follows Swift’s career and her rise into an icon. In other words, Taylor Swift and Netflix have a years-long history of working together.

However, the status of Swift’s and Netflix’s business relationship is more recently unknown. In March 2021, Swift called out the Netflix series Ginny & Georgia and Netflix itself for a joke on the show about her dating history—a joke Swift called “deeply sexist.” In a tweet, Swift even brought up her Miss Americana Netflix documentary, which delved into the singer’s mental health and the challenges she’s faced arising from a judgemental and toxic media and internet culture. “Also, @netflix after Miss Americana this outfit doesn’t look cute on you,” Swift tweeted. “Happy Women’s History Month I guess.”

‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ on Disney Plus

Another likely streamer for Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is Disney Plus. Like Netflix, Disney Plus has a wide global reach. Swift has a streaming history with this company, too: the platform debuted her Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions documentary concert film on November 25, 2020. The Disney Plus documentary was a hit with critics and audiences alike; it received a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score and a 96% audience score.

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Reports say that Swift has a number of other deals in place with Disney already. An unconfirmed rumor says that Swift will appear as comic book hero Dazzler in the studio’s upcoming Marvel movie Deadpool 3. Swift has also been confirmed to be making her first feature film directorial debut, which will be distributed by the Dinsey-owned Searchlight Pictures.

Given Swift’s dealings with the company already, it’s easy to see how Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Disney Plus would be a good fit.

‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ on Apple TV Plus

A third likely candidate to be home to Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is Apple TV Plus. Apple arguably is the best fit for Swift’s film because the company isn’t just a video streamer, it’s also a music giant. 

Apple owns the second-most popular music streaming service in the world: Apple Music. And Swift has had plenty of dealings and influence with Apple Music in the past. Back in 2015, the company’s leadership bowed to Swift after she criticized Apple’s plans to withhold royalties from artists in the first three months of Apple Music’s life. 

The Apple Music service has also distributed a Swift concert film before. In 2015, the company hosted Swift’s The 1989 World Tour Live concert film on Apple Music. It was one of the first instances of Apple acting as a video streamer for feature-length content. 

And that was before Apple TV Plus even existed. Now that Apple has two streaming platforms, it could position Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour as a much-watch event whether you’re a subscriber to Apple Music or Apple TV Plus. As a video and music streamer, Apple can offer Swift cross-marketing possibilities Netflix and Disney can’t.

‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ on Amazon Prime Video

A fourth likely option is that Amazon Prime Video could snap up the streaming rights to Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. The online retail giant has controlled streaming rights to a Swift event before, for a limited time. On July 10, 2019, Swift headlined Amazon’s Prime Day Concert, which was streamed live on Amazon Prime and could be viewed for a limited time after on Prime Video. And just like Apple, Amazon could also cross-market Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour with Swift’s music on Amazon Music.

As for other streamers, such as Hulu or Max, it’s possible that Swift could strike deals with them. However, Hulu and Max aren’t available in all the global territories that Netflix, Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, and Amazon Prime Video are. Should Swift want the Eras Tour concert film to be available for streaming in as many countries as possible on the same day (the film is opening in theaters in 100+ countries on October 13th), she will likely go with one of the four streamers she’s already dealt with in the past. Right now, all four are probably thinking, “You belong with me.”

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