What is Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl?

Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl will be an album-concept film that launches alongside The Life of a Showgirl, and will feature a brand-new music video, lyric videos, and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage.

When will The Official Release Party of a Showgirl be in theaters?

It’ll be in theaters for one weekend only, from Friday, October 3 (the album release date) until Sunday, October 5.

The details:

It’ll feature the exclusive world premiere of a new music video

The first track on The Life of a Showgirl, titled “The Fate of Ophelia” will, Swift has confirmed, be her next single—and it’ll be getting an appropriately sparkly music video, which will debut as part of The Official Release Party of a Showgirl. Alongside that, fans will see brand-new lyric videos—presumably for the whole album, given the film’s run time is 89 minutes—plus never-before-seen behind-the-scenes footage of how the music video for “The Fate of Ophelia” was made, and, per Swift’s Instagram post about the film, “cut by cut explanations of what inspired this music.”

It’s set to be a one-weekend-only extravaganza with a dazzling dress code to match

The Official Release Party of a Showgirl will land in theaters on Friday, October 3, the day The Life of a Showgirl is released, and will remain on screens until Sunday, October 5. Swift described it as a “dazzling soirée,” adding, “Looks like it’s time to brush off that Eras Tour outfit or orange cardigan…” As a result, expect Swifties to answer the call with eye-popping jewelry, sequined bodysuits, and feathers galore. (Bonus points, too, for those who decide to watch it back-to-back with the Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt MMA fighting movie The Smashing Machine, which is released on the same day—a bonkers new Barbenheimer, if you will.)

It should echo the spirit of the Eras Tour movie

“Dancing is optional but very much encouraged,” added Swift. Given the frenzy in theaters during screenings of the Eras Tour movie—impassioned singalongs, spontaneous dancing, tears, an unprecedented use of phones inside theaters to capture the commotion—the vibe for The Official Release Party of a Showgirl is likely to be similarly manic. And you’re guaranteed to see it all over your feeds.

It could very well become a box-office sleeper hit

Deadline reported that the first day of pre-sales alone took in $15 million, with total box-office earnings projected to be between $30-50 million. Naturally, it won’t come close to the much-more-widely-released Eras Tour movie, which made over $250 million, but for a shorter run with a much lower budget, profits should be significant.

If the format works, it’s easy to see it becoming a regular part of Swift’s album rollouts—and, to be honest, it feels like an evolution of a long-standing Swiftie tradition. Listening parties, or “secret sessions,” were once a core part of the Swift industrial complex—gatherings of hand-selected fans in Swift’s own houses or hotel rooms, where they would get to meet her and hear her new songs long before everyone else. With that level of intimacy no longer possible, The Official Release Party of a Showgirl does feel like its most logical new iteration—a communal experience which brings new albums to life.