Ranker Spotlight: Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour broke records this summer, generating so much revenue across the country that analysts credited the tour with boosting the U.S. economy. Now, the pop star’s tour film, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, is already scraping against box-office records, having nearly matched Joker’s higher-ever October opening gross of $39.3 million. The movie’s projected impact is so large, in fact, that Hollywood studios are scrambling to push the premiere dates of their biggest October releases as far away as possible.
To celebrate the arrival of Swift’s film, we used Ranker Insights to look at the lists that Swift tops, and the other artists Swifties tend to love most. We also looked at how much overlap exists between fans of Swift and potential fans of four movies that changed their release dates — The Exorcist: Believer, Dumb Money, What Happens Later, and Priscilla — to see if Hollywood’s fears this Halloween season are justified.
How Swift Ranks on Ranker
Even though Swift has been a public figure for over 15 years — her debut album dropped all the way back in 2006 — she seems to only get more relevant with age. She went from #6 on the list of The Most Influential People Of 2022 (9K votes) to #2 on The Most Influential People Of 2023 (4K votes), second only to Elon Musk (a figure whose influence is far more controversial).
Similarly, back in 2018 when our list Who Is The Most Famous Singer In The World Right Now? (1 million votes) was published, Swift was ranked #12 — she slowly climbed the list until she reached #1 in December of 2022 and stayed there.
And while the five albums she released during the decade put Taylor Swift at #7 on The Greatest Musical Artists Of The 2010s (34K votes), she’s all the way at the top of the list of The Best Female Pop Singer Of 2023 (13K votes). All this suggests that her #9 rankings on The Greatest Teen Pop Bands and Artists (247K votes) and The Most Stylish Female Celebrities (126K votes), respectively, are likely to only get higher in the coming years.
What Do Taylor Swift’s Fans Love?
Swifties are 4X more likely to also love Olivia Rodrigo and 3X more likely to count themselves fans of Dua Lipa and Ariana Grande. When it comes to celebrities more generally, they’re 2X more likely to love actors Anna Kendrick and Colbie Smulders.
But as far as movies go, let’s take a look at how the tastes of Swift’s fan base align (or don’t align) with the four movies that changed their release dates in response to The Eras Tour to see if Hollywood is acting shrewd or like scaredy-cats about the threat Swift’s movie poses to their box-office returns.
The Exorcist: Believer
Photo: Blumhouse
This legacy sequel cost Blumhouse $30 million, high compared with what the production company typically pays for its famously cost-efficient horror movies. That big investment helps to explain the producer’s cautious decision to move “Believer” from the 13th to the 6th of October.
The decision doesn’t appear to have hurt the movie so far, as it came close to making that $30 million back during its opening weekend. But according to Ranker Insights data, there’s very little to suggest the film’s target audience could be swayed by Swift — Swifties are not particularly likely to enjoy Blumhouse franchises like The Purge or Paranormal Activity. There is a slight affinity between Swift and The Conjuring franchise, a modern horror staple, but it’s a very weak one: those who love Swift are only slightly more likely than the average Ranker visitor to vote up movies from this franchise on movie lists like The Best Horror Movies Of All Time (1.3 million votes).
Dumb Money
Photo: Sony Pictures
Dumb Money, the stranger-than-fiction story of the 2021 short squeeze of video game retailer GameStop, ended up opening at the end of September instead of October 6, its previous target. That decision may have been only indirectly related to Swift, as Sony likely feared competition with The Exorcist more than it did with The Eras Tour. Still, did this ripped-from-the-headlines comedy have potential fans in common with Swift?
Similar movies like The Big Short and The Beanie Bubble don’t register much of an affinity with Swift. Neither do stars Paul Dano and Pete Davidson. In fact, those who vote up Swift on The Most Trustworthy Celebrities In The World (1.4 million votes) are 2X more likely to vote down Seth Rogen, another name on the bill, on the same list.
What Happens Later
Photo: Bleecker Street
Meg Ryan’s return to the rom-com genre will be a treat for nostalgists who loved classics like“When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle. You’d think those nostalgists would be an older set than the crowd forming to see Swift in theaters, but What Happens Later distributor Bleecker Street wasn’t so sure. Bleecker Street pushed back the film’s release from October 16 to November 3.
While Swift has no affinity with Ryan’s most popular movies, Ryan herself is voted up by Swift fans on several lists. Those who vote up Swift on The Best Current Female Singers (1.2 million votes) are a whopping 8X more likely to vote up Ryan on The Most Beautiful Women Of All Time (7.8 million votes), while those who vote up Swift on The Most Beautiful Women Of All Time are 2X more likely to vote up Ryan on The Greatest Actors And Actresses In Entertainment History (2.1 million votes).
Priscilla
Photo: A24
A24’s spotlight on Elvis’s first and only wife won plenty of plaudits at Venice, but the cult favorite film factory doesn’t seem to think these awards will save it from Swift. A24 ended up pushing back its release date from October 27 to November 3.
Priscilla does have something to fear in Swift’s new movie. There’s no overlap between Swift and Euphoria, which shares a star with Priscilla in Jacob Elordi, nor with popular A24 movies like Hereditary and Moonlight, nor with other movies from director Sofia Coppola like Lost in Translation. There’s plenty of overlap, however, with Elvis Presley — Swift fans are 2X more likely to vote up Presley on The Best Singers Of All Time (3.1 million votes), 3X more likely to do so on The Greatest Musical Artists Of All Time (2 million votes), and 3X more likely to vote up The King on The Top Country Artists Of All Time (278K votes).