The business of music–and movies, books, plays, and all other art–has always been rather upside down when it comes to artists getting a decent share of the monies so they can, I don’t know, pay the rent.
And it’s no secret that musicians have had a rough time lately, just like other creative types, with people no longer paying cash monies to download mp3’s after they stopped swiping their debit cards for CD’s and cassette tapes and eight-tracks and vinyl. Yes, some hipster types still buy vinyl. Just not nearly not enough to support bands.
So musicians, big or small, rely on selling tickets to live shows along with T-shirts and other merch. If they are famous, and lucky, they get decent money from streaming sites.
Might be a musical revolution
Beyoncé and Taylor Swift are both going in a different, smarter direction with concert movies.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Movie snagged $128 million million in it’s opening weekend. Not week, weekend. AMC alone said it got $100 million in advance ticket sales. This thing will break all kinds of records.
Beyoncé might go on and break the new records. It could get huge.
Why this is brilliant economics and marketing
Concert movies or documentaries aren’t completely new. The size and impact of these two movies, though, will shake up everything.
What’s hilarious is I doubt the expenses are that high. If you’re already putting on a concert, with lights and roadies and backup singers and musicians and dancers–it is not that much extra cost to hire professionals to film during the show and behind the scenes. It’s not much more money to hire a director and editors to go through all that footage to shape the best movie.
Shooting a movie from scratch, now, costs a mountain of cash. A single Marvel movie can run $200 million to $300 million. Or almost double, if you add in marketing. Nobody understands Hollywood accounting, not even Hollywood.
One music video can run up millions on the tab, since you’re also starting from scratch and need dancers, sets, and days to shoot it.
The numbers aren’t all in yet. But I would bet every dollar in my pocket, and yours, that the return on investment for Taylor’s movie and Beyoncé’s film will both be absolutely bonkers.
These two mega-movies will also boost the health of AMC’s stock, causing millions of redditors to lose their minds, refinance their mortgage to buy more stock, and get divorced when their spouse does not understand why their life’s savings got lost on some kind of NASA-related quest to “go to the moon.” Pro-tip: do not do this.
Will this be a trend? Yes, yes, and yes
So yes, this can and should start a trend.
I am only a casual fan of Taylor and Beyoncé, and would never spend a day & night driving to Seattle or Portland to shell out $300 or $500 to see a live concert plus more cash for a hotel because I would not make it home until oh-dark-thirty along with dinner and breakfast and all the things.
Yet I would happily, happily spend $19.89 (symbolic and funny, very nice, Taylor) to pop down to a local theater and watch the concert movie. Absolutely.
And the same would be true for at least 50 other bands, big or small, that I adore.
Can it scale down to smaller bands?
Absolutely. Medium-popular bands could easily spend a lot less and still come out with a cool concert movie.
Even local bands could pull this off. A band in my backyard keeps cranking out great music videos on a shoestring. Love them.
I’d much rather pay to watch a concert movie in a theater than wait around for a band to get close enough for me to drive or fly and see them.
Honestly, I’ve seen fewer and fewer movies in theaters lately after coming down with Superhero Movie Fatigue.
It would be seven separate flavors of awesomesauce to see a hot trend of new concert movies coming to our theaters, week after week. Bring it. I will buy popcorn.
The Red Pen of Doom 