2023-10-17 19:48:39
by Barbara Visentin
Music stars talk about themselves on screens, between concert films in theaters and docuseries on streaming platforms
Crowds of kids dancing, singing, taking selfies. Under a stage? No, at the cinema, in front of giant images of their favorite Taylor Swift. From the United States to Australia, from the Philippines to, obviously, Italy, the videos circulating on social media are always the same: hundreds of very young people – especially very young ones – shouting the lyrics at the top of their lungs with their cell phones in the air, doing the circle under the big screen, they photograph themselves next to the posters placed outside the rooms.
The record-breaking concert film The Eras Tour (123 million dollars grossed globally in the first weekend, of which 746 thousand euros in Italy where it was the most viewed film) overwhelmed cinemas, extending the reign of the 33-year-old American singer-songwriter from the charts at the box office, giving the sector a breath of fresh air (after Greta Gerwig with Barbie thanks to another woman) and filling the theaters with pop music. It was Taylor herself who encouraged her fans to sing and dance during the 2 hours and 48 hours of screening: a dream for the most die-hard Swifties, as her followers are called, a nightmare, perhaps, for those who are not so into this self- proclaimed cult and perhaps wanted to enjoy the vision in peace.
Not that concert films are new: Michael Jackson’s This is it, released posthumously in 2009, the one with the highest grossing record, Pink Floyd’s Live in Pompeii is one of the most famous, but there have also been Madonna, U2, Rolling Stones, just to stay on the big names, passing through Vasco in 2017 at Modena Park.
For Swift, as only she can do, she managed to rewrite the rules with impressive results. The first weekend’s takings, with which it beat Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never, in the lead since 2011, arrived despite the notice of only six weeks with which the film was announced and with the sole promotion of the singer-songwriter’s social posts (350 millions of followers between Instagram and Twitter). The distribution method is also new because Swift has chosen to bypass the Hollywood studios by negotiating directly with the cinemas and securing a much larger slice of the revenues, 57%.
This will also be done by Beyonc, expected in theaters on December 1st with the film of her Renaissance World Tour (in the meantime on Netflix you can see Homecoming, about her 2018 performance at Coachella): two queens of music who with these operations offer something more to their audience: some new content, behind the scenes, the chance to see the show for those who couldn’t be there live or to relive it in detail for those who were there, but perhaps had a place very far away.
Concert films and docufilms are also popular in Italy: from 23 to 25 October Zucchero – Sugar Fornaciari arrives in cinemas and will be presented on the 21st at the Rome Film Festival. And the day before, Negramaro Back Home – Now I know how to stay also debuts in Rome (it will be in cinemas from 6 to 8 November). In March, however, Ligabue also celebrated his career on the big screen with Ligabue-30 years in a day, a film that retraces his live performance in Campovolo in 2022.
But artists, apparently, want to talk about themselves beyond music, as evidenced by the flood of docuseries and docufilms arriving on the platforms. Veterans take the opportunity (among the Italians Vasco, recently on Netflix with Il Survivsuto, among the next foreigners Robbie Williams who lands on Netflix again on 8 November), but young and very young people also take advantage of it (Taylor Swift had obviously done school in 2020 with Miss Americana): this year it was the turn of Ed Sheeran, on Disney+ with The Sum of It All, of Lewis Capaldi with How I’m Feeling Now (Netflix), but also of Elodie, on Prime Video with I still feel the vertigo of Ultimo, same platform for his Vivo with hanging dreams. Last year, among the house names, there were Laura Pausini, Tiziano Ferro, Emma, Mahmood.
The result is twofold: fans have access to hidden sides of their favorites while the artists, participating personally in the creation, are in control of their story and have the opportunity to say (only) what they want. Whether they are giants with decades of careers behind them or kids with a future still to be written (and told).
October 17, 2023 (modified October 17, 2023 | 7:51 pm)
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