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- "Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl" will arrive in theaters on Friday.AMC is relaxing its rules, encouraging Swifties to sing and dance at the screenings.Swift's influence could push movie theaters to embrace (and monetize) participatory fan culture.
We've seen Taylor Swift single-handedly boost the US economy, reshape NFL viewership in her own image, and convince an industry titan like Apple to adjust its business model to her specifications. Could the Swift Effect be coming for movie theater etiquette next?
Swift's new album, "The Life of a Showgirl," will arrive Friday with her signature fanfare, including a bespoke theatrical event. "The Official Release Party of a Showgirl" will be screened in select movie theaters for one weekend only, and Swifties are already preparing to go all out.
AMC has granted permission for moviegoers to sing and dance, even though it says this behavior is "normally prohibited during traditional showtimes." Swift told fans the same: "Dancing is optional but very much encouraged."
So if you're planning to see a different movie at AMC, you may want to delay until after this weekend unless you want squeals and cheers leaking from the next screening over. When Swift says boisterous behavior is encouraged, it's a pretty safe bet that Swifties will oblige.
Swift's power to sway consumer behavior is no joke. Her Midas touch spans industries from music (duh) and fashion to publishing and podcasts — and, in the past few years, movie theaters. As with all her recent album rollouts, "The Life of a Showgirl" isn't just about letting us hear whatever she's cooked up in the studio. It's a test of her ability to reshape cultural norms.
By encouraging fans to treat movie theaters like concert venues, Swift is dismantling traditional notions of cinema etiquette and showing chains like AMC how fan culture can be embraced — and monetized.
The stage for this shift was set in 2023, when the Eras Tour concert film arrived on the big screen. It's often said that people don't go to the movies anymore, and yet, Swift encouraged fans to do more than just show up: arrive in themed attire, swap friendship bracelets, and sing along to her three-hour performance. While some staffers and moviegoers bristled at the commotion, the explicitly communal experience broke box-office records.
"Honestly, compared to all of the kids' movies and horror movies that are out right now, the Taylor Swift fans are not bad at all," a theater employee told Business Insider at the time.
Swifties aren't the only moviegoers acting up
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To be sure, the decline of movie theater etiquette had already been a topic of discussion long before Swift's 2023 concert film premiered.
Dr. Karen Tongson of USC Dornsife, who has decades of experience studying pop culture and media, told me Swift's approach to cinema is a natural progression from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," a cult-classic film that was transformed into a live, interactive spectacle and bonding experience in the queer community. It's now considered the longest-running theatrical release in film history.
"There are collective experiences of talking back to the screen and participating with film, from 'Rocky Horror' onwards," Tongson said. "So the thing that's being called 'main character syndrome' now, it has roots."
We don't have to go back to 1975 to find examples, though. In 2022, the "Gentleminions" trend was born after a group of young men wore suits to see "Minions: The Rise of Gru." However, the event devolved into chaos when some participants created mosh pits and even vandalized theaters.
When illicit clips of "Barbie" were popping up on TikTok in 2023, moviegoers complained about disrespectful phone use by fellow patrons. More recently, silver-screen musicals like "Wicked" (2024) and "Hamilton" (2025) have reignited debates over whether it's OK to sing in a movie theater.
In the former case, AMC said no, but "Wicked" stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo said, "Why not?" Similarly, the "Hamilton" cast said to go ahead and join in, but the film was not marketed as a sing-along event, leading to confusion and complaints from fans who expected to enjoy the show quietly.
In perhaps the most dramatic example, earlier this year, TikTok trends and viral "chicken jockey" memes about "A Minecraft Movie" incited a wave of rowdy behavior in theaters, including screaming, throwing popcorn at the screen, and, in at least one case, sneaking a live chicken into the theater to hoist into the air.
Many theaters took steps to prevent mayhem, threatening to remove disruptive fans without a refund. Theater owners in states like Georgia and Missouri told local news channels they were forced to contend with "horrific" messes of popcorn, ICEEs, and even shattered glass, resulting in extra cleanup time for staff.
"It's becoming very disruptive of the movie-going experience, and also it was causing destruction to our brand-new theaters," Josh Gunderson, director of marketing and events at Oviedo Mall, which operates a theater owned by Regal Cinemas, told Fox Business.
Regal Cinemas did not attempt to ban unaccompanied minors from screenings, as some local theaters did, but rather to harness and channel enthusiasm into special "Chicken Jockey Screenings," where fans were invited to "dress up as their favorite Minecraft characters, whoop, yelp, clap, and shout."
In a surprise to box-office analysts — but probably not to those kids — "A Minecraft Movie" became a smash hit, earning hundreds of millions of dollars globally. As it turns out, bedlam can be very lucrative, especially when it's reframed as participation.
"Here we have a naturally occurring phenomenon that's actually bringing flesh-and-blood young people to their local temples of cinema," Nicholas Quah wrote for Vulture about "A Minecraft Movie" in April. "Surely there's a more productive response than reflexively trying to quash that energy."
The key is in the marketing
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If a new, noisier era of movie theater etiquette is already upon us, then maybe Swift's approach can be truly instructive: Make sure everyone knows ahead of time what they're in for.
Unlike "Wicked," "Hamilton," and "A Minecraft Movie," both the Eras Tour concert film and "The Official Release Party of a Showgirl" were explicitly advertised as participatory events from the jump. Swift gave moviegoers and theater employees alike ample time to prepare and, in the case of non-Swifties, adjust or avoid accordingly.
AMC's online FAQ even states that its theaters will be enhancing security during "Showgirl" weekend to ensure excited fans don't get out of control.
When I polled fans online about their plans and expectations for the album release parties, the vast majority agreed that a heads-up is key.
"I'm going to the event fully expecting it to be more of a concert vibe than a traditional movie vibe," one person told me. "I probably won't be dancing or singing along, but it won't bother me if others do."
Another agreed: "I'm excited for party vibes, but I'll participate however the energy of the crowd goes."
What we interpret today as two cultures clashing may simply be the result of mismatched expectations; a movie theater is typically a place of peace and quiet, but it doesn't always have to be that way. As Swift has long since figured out, it's all in the marketing.
Tongson recalled taking a group of non-Swiftie friends to see the Eras Tour concert film in 2023. They had all seen the videos of moviegoers decked out in sparkles, dancing in the aisles, and screaming "fuck the patriarchy!" during Swift's performance of "All Too Well." They'd been "lured" to the theater, she said, by the promise of community and collective joy.
In yet another financially challenging year for Hollywood and the movie-theater industry, companies like AMC would be foolish not to embrace (and cash in on) that passion and synergy.
"Studios and artists pay attention to fan and audience responses," Tongson added. "The more something happens organically or spontaneously as a driver of attendance, as a driver of participation, then the more you'll see people wanting to do that."
