With the recent announcement of “The Eras Tour” being screened at several theaters in the United States, Canada and Mexico, fervent Taylor Swift fans, also known as “Swifties”, swarmed the AMC app, eager to secure tickets of the historic concert. "The Eras Tour”, which is still ongoing and will stretch into next year, has already left a trail of technological turmoil in the past with one more adding to the list.
For those attempting to book tickets for "The Eras Tour" or any other event, the AMC app displayed a message explaining that online reservations were temporarily unavailable due to an overwhelming volume of users. The message suggested to the fans in dismay to visit a local AMC theater in person to make reservations.
"The Eras Tour" has a history of wreaking havoc on online booking websites. Ticketmaster, the primary ticket vendor for the actual tour, experienced widespread crashes in numerous countries when tickets first went on sale.
Just North America saw a particularly chaotic scene, with an astonishing 14 million users, including bots, vying for tickets, according to the company. A Ticketmaster blog post also confirmed that presale traffic shattered all previous records by a factor of four.
Keeping the history in mind, AMC had anticipated the potential network overload when they joined the event. They proudly announced that they had upgraded their ticketing infrastructure to handle "more than five times the largest influx of ticket-buying traffic the company has ever experienced before." However, even their preparedness was no match for the enthusiastic Swifties who proved to be more powerful than any online system.
Tickets for the concert film are currently available for purchase, priced at $19.89 for adults and $13.13 for children and seniors. These prices exclude AMC's branded premium large-format screens.
With the movie set to grace screens at every AMC theater in the US starting October 13, multiple showtimes will be available on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
AMC clarified that it is currently working diligently to “ensure that everyone eager to experience Taylor Swift's "The Eras Tour" on the big screen gets a chance to witness the historic concert”.