Swifties turn out as ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Movie’ hits Hampton Roads theaters

Ava Lomogda thought she was just going to dinner with her grandma Thursday night. When the Bayview Elementary school student found out they were also seeing “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” movie, she couldn’t stop bouncing.

Does the 9-year-old consider herself a Swiftie?

“Yes! Definitely!,” she said, hopping up and down beside the concession stand at The Regal Columbus movie theater in Virginia Beach.

Ava is one of the legions of fans expected to turn out this weekend for the opening of Swift’s highly anticipated movie. The concert film, which was scheduled for release on Friday, came out a day early because of unprecedented demand. Box office analysts predict it could generate as much as $150 million during its debut weekend, a figure that would make it the highest opening of a concert film and also one of the highest openings of 2023, according to CNBC.

The pop star and style icon has been a musical and marketing powerhouse since her debut in 2006 at age 16. She’s won 12 Grammy Awards and sold more than 13 million albums in multiple genres.

Yet her fans – Swifties – say her real genius is how she connects with people.

“She’s the older sister I don’t have,” Savannah Stamper, 26, from Virginia Beach said. “I feel like I’ve grown up with her.”

Decked out in Taylor Swift bracelets, shirt, sunglasses and sparkly eye makeup, Drew Johnson went to the movie with three other women, including her kids’ babysitter.

“I think because I’m close in age. When she was 15 writing, it was similar to what I was going through. And then we kind of aged together,” said Johnson, 29, who lives in Poquoson and was catching the movie at Cinemark City Center in Newport News.

“As she’s grown up, her lyrics, I think, they’re more intricate than people think.”

When Shelby Kline and Dylann Reilly heard the movie would be released a day early, they made sure to be at the first showing.

“I watched the trailer on the way here just to get hyped up,” Kline, 26, said.

The movie is a compilation of Swift’s three performances in Los Angeles from her current tour, which has been selling out venues across the world and breaking records at some stadiums. When concert tickets went on sale last fall, the Ticketmaster site crashed, sparking fierce backlash from fans, a rebuke from Swift and a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in which lawmakers used the songwriter’s lyrics to make their case.

Reilly, 17, had a presale code to Swift’s concert when tickets went on sale and waited for seven or eight hours online to get them. The show sold out right before her turn.

The movie is as close as she can get to the real T-Swift, at least for now.

“I think it’s really cool that she’s doing this because a lot of people didn’t get to see her perform,” said Kline, who compared the concert movie to the film version of the popular Broadway hit “Hamilton” in terms of making it available to the wider public.

Hailee Morse and Katie Hayden got lucky. They both saw Swift in Nashville.

“Literally the best thing of my life,” Morse, 25, said, despite a storm that delayed the show by four hours.

Alexandra Carter and her 4-year-old daughter joined the fun at Cinemark. Carter was excited to share the experience with her.

“It’s fun seeing it in her eyes,” she said. “She just gets really excited.”

Carter, 35, said she’s been a fan since the beginning. “Her music is very relatable. She just makes it easy to like her.”