Taylor Swift: ‘Eras Tour’ has spooked another October film since its release. Last week, pop superstar Taylor Swift announced that the film adaptation of her blockbuster Eras Tour would premiere on October 13, the same day as Blumhouse’s The Exorcist: The Faithful. While Blumhouse co-founder Jason Blum briefly toyed with the Barbenheimer-esque “Exorswift” hashtag, he announced later that day that the film’s release date would be pushed back to October 6 to avoid conflict with the concert documentary, which is predicted to it will currently earn over $100 million and become the highest-grossing concert film of all time.
According to Deadline, another film followed suit. Ostensibly seeking to get out of the way of both the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour release date and the new episode of The Exorcist, Craig Gillespie’s Dumb Money has pushed back its wider release from October 6 to September 29. Inspired by the true story of GameStop stock market short squeeze in January 2021, the project will keep the original limited release date of September 15th.
Now that Dumb Money has moved its broader release to September, the last weekend of the month has gotten quite crowded. The biggest movie scheduled this weekend is the horror sequel Saw X. However, other films in the lineup include director Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi epic The Maker, A24’s first musical, Dix: The Musical (in limited release). and a comedy thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman, Murder Room (opening a day earlier, September 28).
“Dumb Money” has the potential to affect the demographics of any of these films. Gillespie has directed several Oscar-nominated films (including I, Tonya), so Dumb Money may appeal to the same audience as the new A24 filmmakers. It also appears to be aimed at a desirable audience of 18 to 35 years old, which probably also makes up the majority of Saw X’s audience.
Given this kind of overcrowding, it wouldn’t be surprising if one or more of these films would be moved to avoid competition, continuing the chain reaction caused by Taylor Swift: Tour of the Ages. The eventual postponement of one of these films could affect several consecutive dates, as major releases such as The Expendables 4 and Hercule Poirot’s sequel, The Haunting in Venice, are scheduled two weekends before the 29th. Whether or not this process will continue after the release of Dumb Money remains to be seen, but Taylor Swift’s unexpected release date announcement has already had an undeniable side effect.
Source: Timing