Taylor Swift reveals special surprise for fans on her 26th birthday

On Sunday, Taylor Swift gave her fans a special surprise when she announced that the 1989 World Tour Live Concert Film would be released through Apple Music on Dec 20. Many fans found this surprising after she wrote an open letter in June expressing her opinion of Apple’s three-month free trial, where artists would not be paid.

Swift recently finished off her tour with a performance in Sydney in front of 76,000 people.The film will show the entire performance and never-before-seen footage of backstage, rehearsals and musical and surprise guests, such as Alanis Morissette, Steven Tyler, and Wiz Khalifa. The film directed by Jonas Akerlund, is expected to be popular, while maybe not as popular as the $240 million in ticket sales.

The decade long tradition of releasing concert movies will have to add some “blank space” for Taylor Swift’s latest concert movie. Among those, Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never is the highest grossing concert film of all time, earning $29,514,054 on its opening weekend. Other artists such as Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, One Direction and the Jonas Brothers are also in the top five spots. The first concert movie, The T.A.M.I. show, came out in 1964 and featured a collection of artists such as The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, Marvin Gaye and The Rolling Stones.

While many famous artists have released concert documentaries, many biographical movies have also been made about music artists but sank in popularity. Imagine, about John Lennon, was released in 1988 and only earned $3.75 million, Neil Young: Heart of Gold also earned $1.83 million. Amy, about Amy Winehouse was released this year and earned $8.4 million. Woodstock, released in 1970, earned $50 million in the U.S. alone.