The megastar’s underwhelming new album gets a suitably sub-par cinematic accompaniment offering very little for even the most devoted of fans

Just as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, fans of Taylor Swift will heed the call for new content. Long before the economy-lifting, paradigm-shifting global domination of her Eras Tour, Swift had cultivated a uniquely intense and personal relationship with her fans, even within the reverential world of pop music. That relationship, sustained through Easter eggs, years long parasocial narratives and arguably her own metaverse, can be real and special and nutritive, a steady raft through life’s storms – I’ve been there. But years into her imperial era, Swift’s cyclical feeding of the fan base has started to seem less like an act of mutual devotion and more nakedly exploitative, the many one-off re-releases and special vinyls and limited-edition Target drops like a billionaire’s tax on her most loyal.

The latest of these is the Life of a Showgirl movie – or, more accurately, a “launch event” film for her new album The Life of a Showgirl, out this Friday. Officially billed as the Official Release Party of a Showgirl, it’s a collection of song explainers, behind-the-scenes snippets and one music video (played twice!), unceremoniously packaged into one 90-minute sitting. It’s the type of stuff any other artist would put on YouTube, but which Swift, having already asserted box office domination with her Eras Tour concert movie, has decided to put into theaters from 3-5 October. With a projected $30m opening in the US, it will almost certainly be the highest-grossing film of the weekend – which is a shame, given that it barely qualifies as a visual aid to the album, let alone one worthy of note in her vast universe of content.