Intro for September 22, 2025

Dear Gossips,  

Taylor Swift announced last week that she will be releasing her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, with a movie premiere. The Official Release Party of a Showgirl will play in theatres for one weekend, October 3-5, coinciding with the album drop, and already presales have reached $15 million with a projected eventual box office landing somewhere between $30-50 million. 

I love this movie for the art and for the business. Where the art is concerned, given that the album is themed entirely around the showgirl experience, meeting Showgirl, the album, in theatres is exactly right. Taylor has said that she never wants to repeat herself and that applies to promotion. This is an entirely new way for her to promote her new work, and creatively it aligns with the theme of the work, and adds to the “larger than life” showgirl energy she’ll be bringing to the music – a showgirl on the biggest screen, with the biggest sound, in front of a big audience. 

On the business side, according to Deadline, the film – which reportedly runs just under 90 minutes – was already complete when Taylor’s team reached out to AMC to make the deal in late August. Just as it was when The Eras Tour movie played in theatres, Taylor is not working with any studio, another example of how she’s adding to her own empire. She has regained control of her masters, she can release movies to promote her music without the assistance of the movie industry and also without that much lead time. Two weeks advance notice is not a lot of runway, in comparison to traditional promotion timelines, to generate interest for the purpose of pumping up sales. The flex here, however, is that the movie is in service to the album. The album is the focus, moving the album is the priority, and the film is basically one of the marketing strategies to support the album. Imagine having the influence to put a whole ass movie in theatres that’s really just an accessory? An extended play music video? That’s where Taylor Swift is right now. 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey