Nearly 60 years after Elvis Presley bid farewell to his movie star career, the King of Rock 'n' Roll is making a grand return at the box office. After the success of Baz Luhrmann's 2022 film 'Elvis' and Sofia Coppola's 2023 'Priscilla', the iconic musician has once again cracked the top 10 highest-grossing films for the third time in less than four years. Luhrmann's latest cinematic tribute, 'EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert', a hybrid concert film/documentary, has earned a staggering $14 million domestically and globally during its first weekend in wide release. The movie, shown in over 5,000 locations, ranked below 'Scream 7' and 'Goat', which topped the box office. 'EPiC' marks the third-biggest opening for a documentary of all time, ahead of 'One Direction: This Is Us' (2013) and 'Michael Jackson's This Is It' (2009).
The strong debut is a testament to the enduring appeal of music-themed documentaries and concert films, even as studios focus on developing biopics of famous musicians like the Beatles and Michael Jackson. Luhrmann attributes this to the desire of young people to participate in groups and experience events, with music films serving as immersive events in themselves. The cinematic tribute to the King of Rock 'n' Roll was made entirely of never-before-seen footage, discovered by Luhrmann's research team in an underground salt mine in Kansas while making the 2022 biopic starring Austin Butler.
'EPiC' follows Presley as he returns to live music at his Las Vegas residency after his stint as an actor. The hour and 36-minute feature, which reportedly cost about $10 million to make, began its limited release on Feb. 20, opening at 325 locations. It also had a one-week stint in IMAX, making it the highest-grossing week ever for a documentary in IMAX. The film's domestic distribution officer, Elissa Federoff, attributes its success to the big-screen environment, which offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Elvis at his peak. Audiences of all ages can immerse themselves in these incredible performances, and doing so with friends, family, and a full theater makes it unforgettable.
The correlation between listening to an artist's music after seeing a documentary or a concert film isn't exclusive to the cinema experience. When documentaries on streaming platforms gain traction, artists often see a spike in listens. For instance, when 'Becoming Led Zeppelin' hit Netflix last year, it became the most-watched music documentary across all streaming platforms, driving the British rock band's global streams to their highest ever weekly peak at the time, hitting 40.4 million. Over the course of its limited release and one week in Imax, there was a 'slight uptick' in listens for Presley's catalog both nationally and in the L.A. area, according to music data analyst Luminate.
And Luhrmann isn't done yet with the story of America's most famous rock 'n' roll star. As he plots the screening of 'EPiC' at the Las Vegas Sphere, the Aussie also plans to adapt Presley's life into a stage production, similar to what he did with 'Moulin Rouge! The Musical'. The future of music cinema looks bright, with the potential to bring new audiences to the cinema and expand what a cinema is - an entertainment hub or cultural hub.
