Taylor Swift, Martin Scorsese films battle for ultimate box office supremacy

With $2.6 million in Thursday previews, Martin Scorsese's Western crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon began its North American theatrical run. Taylor Swift's Eras Tour took the day with $5.9 million as it gets ready to cross the $100 million mark domestically sometime on Friday.

Scorsese reunites with two of his go-to performers, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, in the Apple Original film. 

The movie, which is based on David Grann's book on the 1920s murders of Osage Nation tribe members after oil was discovered on their Oklahoma property, also stars Lily Gladstone.

The weekend is predicted to belong to Swift and AMC Theatres' Eras Tour, which debuted to a record-breaking $92.8 million in North America and $123.5 million globally last weekend. 

However, the competition between the two films may be tighter than anticipated. Even though many box office experts are projecting $30 million to $35 million for Eras, concert pictures sometimes suffer sharp drops in popularity. 

It is therefore not out of the question that the film makes $25 million or less. The movie is showing Thursday through Sunday but will be losing Imax and Dolby Cinema screens to Flower Moon this weekend.

Although some monitoring services have it coming in higher and even north of $25 million, Apple and distribution partner Paramount are targeting a domestic debut of at least $20 million. How Flower Moon performs in the following weeks as award season develops may be more significant than the opening weekend's revenue.