It's still Taylor Swift's world and we're all just living in it. While not everyone is excited about a new album from Swift, shareholders of AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE:AMC), Universal Music (OTC:UNVGY)(OTC:UMGNF) and Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) are among the people who could benefit from the global superstar's latest album.
Taylor Swift Conquers Movie Theaters Again
Over the weekend, AMC Theaters partnered with Swift to release "The Official Release Party of a Showgirl," a cinematic experience and listening party for fans to celebrate the musician's 12th studio album, "The Life of a Showgirl."
AMC and other movie theaters showed the experience over the weekend, with AMC likely the biggest beneficiary as a partner with Swift.
The movie experience ranked number one worldwide and domestically over the weekend. The film grossed $33 million domestically and $46 million worldwide, according to a report from Variety.
AMC is becoming known as a partner with Swift as the movie chain also partnered with the musician and helped distribute "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" in 2023. The film grossed $261.7 million globally, despite a limited run in theaters, breaking multiple concert film records along the way.
"AMC Theatres is so proud to have collaborated with Taylor," AMC CEO Adam Aron said. "What an honor and privilege and joy it has been for us to once again play a role in her incomparable success."
Aron previously credited Swift and popcorn buckets as factors that provided an unexpected boost to revenue and helped the company overcome its 2023 and 2024 weaknesses.
In the 2023 quarter, which included the release of the Swift concert film, AMC reported revenue up 12% year-over-year and beat analyst estimates.
Aron highlighted the success of the Swift concert film and one from Beyoncé as releases that contributed to the quarter’s success.
Another Swift event could help provide an unexpected boost to AMC’s revenue in the fourth quarter of this fiscal year.
Album Sales Near Records
Released on Oct. 3, "The Life of a Showgirl" is one of the biggest album launches of all time. The album sold 2.7 million copies on its first day in the United States.
This ranks as the second biggest sales week for a music album in the modern era after only one day, according to a report from Billboard. Data from Luminate tracks physical and digital purchases.
The 2.7 million sales is the biggest sales week for Swift ever. The current record holder for weekly sales for an album since 1991 is Adele's "25," which sold 3.38 million copies during its first week back in 2015.
Swift's newest album set a modern-day vinyl record with 1.2 million copies sold, breaking her own record of 859,000 copies of her 2024 album "The Tortured Poets Department."
Album sales for "The Life of a Showgirl" will go up with the first-week sales ending on Oct. 9 and are expected to be announced on Oct. 12.
The newest album also helps Swift set several personal records, including her 15th number one album, making her the solo artist with the most number one albums. Only The Beatles rank ahead with 19 number one albums.
Universal Music Group owns Republic Records, home of Swift's new albums. Universal Music, which trades OTC in the U.S., has plans to uplist to a major stock exchange in the U.S. by the end of 2025, which could be perfect timing to coincide with a new Swift release.
Target to Benefit as Swift Partner
While Universal Music stands to benefit the most from Swift's strong-selling new studio album, Target could be a beneficiary.
The retailer offered pre-orders of the album and also had several exclusive versions.
According to Billboard, Swift offered 23 different physical version of the album, including CD versions, vinyl versions and boxed sets that contained clothing and the album.
Four of these physical editions were exclusive to Target, three being CD versions and one being a vinyl version.
While not every Swift fan will buy an exclusive version of the album, some will, and others will purchase multiple versions or every version possible.
Target was previously the exclusive home of "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology," a behind-the-scenes tour book. The book was released for Black Friday in 2024 and saw lines outside stores and strong sales.
Read Next:
Photo: akslam / Shutterstock.com
