And it’s a great thing whether you consider yourself a Swiftie or not. An that’s because it’s both a telling and extraordinarily refreshing thing that the #1 movie at the domestic box office last weekend has a “-” in its distributor column. It’s an appropriate slap in the face to the studios in the AMPTP that Taylor Swift put her concert movie out there without even dealing with them for two reasons: first, because the AMPTP just walked away from the bargaining table with SAG-AFTRA, and were later called out by the entertainment unions as a whole for not negotiating in good faith. Second, because as many major releases have shifted on the calendar movie theaters need the boost of revenue that comes from any project–especially one without a distributor–with over $125M in presales. This means additional incremental revenue in fees for movie ticket apps like AMC Stubs, Regal or Fandango. After Barbenheimer was perhaps even more crucial to the box office than Top Gun was post-COVID because many movies this summer either bombed or underperformed. Following a summer where studios and many theaters were buoyed essentially by two films having two dueling strikes severely hurt the Fall and Holiday seasons would be two steps back, so something like this concert film that came seemingly out of blue is a great thing.