Dendy Canberra to screen Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour for 24 hours straight

With Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour landing in cinemas on Friday - at 6pm, the same time as the rest of the world - Dendy Canberra has not only scheduled sessions almost every 30 minutes during normal opening hours, but is continuing throughout the night. With 15 screens screening the film, the Canberra cinema will have almost 100 sessions across the weekend. Fifty of those are within the first 24 hours of release.

What's more, Canberra is the only place this is happening, with the cinema chain selecting the capital as the prime location for what they are labelling the Taylor Swift Overnight Party.

"Canberra is our largest cinema on the Dendy Cinema circuit, in prime CBD location, and presents the perfect opportunity to bring this unique overnight screening experience to our patrons in Canberra," Dendy Cinemas' Leigh Barnett said.

"We have seen a significant appetite from our Canberra audience, with anticipation building as we get closer to the opening this Friday."

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This is the second time this year that cinemas have reaped the rewards of buzz around a certain film, with Barbie - and by association, Oppenheimer - seeing theatregoers flock to the movies. Early indicators point towards Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour seeing similar numbers. Global advance ticket sales for the concert film have already crossed $US 100 Million.

"It would be tough to knock Barbie off the podium, that was something else! Given Taylor Swift is only screening for a limited time the buzz is high. We've had a lot of enquiries and are anticipating record crowds through," Mr Barnett said.

Many fans have already purchased their tickets to Friday's movie sessions - including members of the ANU Taylor Swift Society.

Whether they were lucky enough to get tickets to the tour - which will hit Australian shores early next year - or not, they are keen to see the concert film in the cinema.

"The concert film is just going to be a taste [of the concert], because I think that nothing can compare to a live Taylor Swift concert," ANU Taylor Swift Society member Mikayla Simpson said.

"But I think it is good that it's coming out now. Because it is peace of mind for maybe some of the Swifties who didn't get tickets. And it's giving everyone a chance to see it even if they may not be able to [go to the concert]."

For others who were not able to get tickets to the Australian leg of the tour, the cinema experience is still giving them a little slice of the concert pie.

"I wasn't able to get tickets but I'm still really excited for the tour movie because I still get to see the whole thing and have it be an experience - to dress up and go with my friends instead of just playing it on Netflix at home," ANU Taylor Swift Society member Mia Jaggers said.

And according to ANU Research School of Management senior lecturer Toni Eager, that's part of what it means to be in a fandom.

"In terms of live events, if you're not there when it's live, you miss out on all the sociality. And there's that FOMO (fear of missing out)," Dr Eager said.

"If you're not there to see it as it happens, other people are going to be talking about it, making interpretations and ... you come in late, like what happened? What did I miss?

"So if you're a Swiftie, or you want to have something to say to other Swifites or other people who have seen the movie, you need to get in early so you can be part of that initial shaping of conversations - where you shape the interpretation or shape the discourse around interpreting whether it was good or bad."

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