Whether you love it or hate it, there’s no denying that Taylor Swift’s twelfth studio album The Life of a Showgirl has dominated the cultural conversation since its Oct. 3 release date.
The Life of a Showgirl became the most-streamed album in a single day on Spotify in 2025, while lead single “The Fate of Ophelia” became the most-streamed song in a single day in Spotify history. Despite the album’s record-breaking performance, The Life of a Showgirl also garnered criticism for lack of self-awareness, alleged use of AI in its promotion, and even whether Swift should be labeling herself a “showgirl” at all.
In addition to all this chatter — not to mention a full on late night media blitz — Swift also released a film to commemorate the album’s release, titled Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl.
Only in theaters from Oct. 3 to Oct. 5, The Official Release Party of a Showgirl wasn’t a traditional music film in the vein of Swift’s concert movie Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. Instead, it played lyric videos of The Life of a Showgirl‘s songs, interspersed with Swift giving insights into each song. The centerpiece of The Official Release Party of a Showgirl was the premiere of the music video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” along with behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the music video.
Even with a short release window and no Thursday night screenings, The Official Release Party of a Showgirl crushed it at the box office. According to a press release from Business Wire, The Official Release Party of a Showgirl raked in $34 million domestically and $16 million internationally, making for a global debut of over $50 million. As staggering as that number is, it’s still less than half of the $123.5 million global opening of The Eras Tour. But to put it in perspective, that was a full concert film for the highest-grossing concert tour of all time, whereas The Official Release Party of a Showgirl was mostly lyric videos.
With both of these projects, Swift has proven that her music is a major box office draw. (Her acting is another matter, as she’s recently starred in box office flops Cats and Amsterdam.) Next up, Swift is set to make her feature directorial debut with a film for Searchlight Pictures. While there are no further details about the plot of the film or when it can be released, could Swift continue her streak of box office victories in the near future?
