Universal bumped the release date of The Exorcist: Believer up one week due to unprecedented demand for the just-announced concert film Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. It seems like the one thing scarier than demonic possession is Swifties taking over the box office. Would ExorSwift have worked like Barbenheimer? We'll never know.
In a press release yesterday, AMC Theatres announced the concert film Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour would arrive in theaters on October 13, the same day as The Exorcist: Believer. According to Variety, presale tickets for the Taylor Swift movie have already pulled in $26 million, setting a new single-day sales record for AMC. The previous record holder, Spider-Man: No Way Home, only pulled in $16.9 million in one day. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour broke that record in three hours.
“Taylor Swift is giving moviegoing fans and the entire industry the ultimate gift by bringing Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film to the big screen,” said Jerramy Hainline, senior VP at Fandango Ticketing. “Not only is Taylor Swift’s concert film the best first-day ticket seller of the year on Fandango, but the concert film is performing like the superhero she is and ranking among the best first-day ticket sellers of all time from franchises like Marvel, Star Wars, DC Comics and more.”
The Exorcist: Believer Is Scared of Competing Against Taylor Swift on Opening Weekend
The Exorcist: Believer is the sixth film in the Exorcist franchise, but this requel is a direct sequel to the 1973 classic and even brings back original star Ellen Burstyn (pictured above, left) as Chris MacNeil. The new movie is directed by David Gordon Green, the same director who successfully continued the Halloween franchise by bringing back scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis for Halloween, Halloween Kills, and Halloween Ends. The Exorcist: Believer is intended as the first film in a new Exorcist trilogy. Linda Blair, who played the possessed Regan MacNeil in the original film, is rumored to make a cameo in The Exorcist: Believer.
NBC describes the plot of The Exorcist: Believer as follows: “Set half a century after young Regan MacNeil was freed from Pazuzu, the nightmare begins afresh when two more girls — Angela (Lidya Jewett) and Katherine (Olivia O'Neill) — find themselves under the spell of a similar malevolent entity. When modern medicine and science fail to cure the children, Angela's father, widower Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) brings in a ringer: none other than Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn).”
The second film in the new Exorcist trilogy, tentatively titled The Exorcist: Deceiver, has a scheduled release date of April 18, 2025.
The Exorcist: Believer will now open on October 6, 2023 in theaters everywhere.