Beyoncé’s Renaissance film is the next movie theater blockbuster

Beyoncé is bringing her Renaissance tour to theaters, making her the second pop superstar this season to turn a blockbuster concert into a moviegoing experience. Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé will hit theaters across the US, Canada, and Mexico on December 1st — AMC, Cinemark, and Regal are all selling tickets already. AMC says it’ll be going global at some point, too.

The announcement comes a month after tickets for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour concert film broke preorder records, doing $26 million in ticket sales in just one day. Swift’s film was only available at AMC during that preorder window, which likely means a wider availability for Renaissance.

While concert films hitting theaters isn’t a new phenomenon, Swift’s immense success comes as theaters are still on rocky footing post-pandemic. Theater chains have been struggling to get people back into seats for a handful of reasons — a dearth of major blockbusters, big titles going straight to streaming, and people just generally falling out of the habit of showing up to theaters. The price of tickets seems to have skyrocketed in response, too; it costs $25 to see Renaissance at a Regal theater in New York, and that’s before whatever ticket fees come in.

In June, PwC estimated that movie theater ticket sales will still be falling short of their pre-covid pandemic levels in 2027. On the other hand, the firm estimates that ticket revenue should catch up in 2025, thanks to higher ticket prices.

All that means Beyoncé is doing theaters a big favor — and we can expect some (un)healthy competition between her fans and Swift’s as box office numbers start to come out.