Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Isn't The Only Concert Film Cleaning Up At The Box Office
Much ink has been spilled regarding "Taylor Swift: The Era's Tour." The Grammy-winning, chart-topping artist released a concert film documenting her massive ongoing tour in theaters recently, and it's gone all too well so far, with the movie earning more than $92 million on its opening weekend in theaters domestically. Meanwhile, another concert film — one that was originally made nearly 40 years ago — has been quietly cementing itself as a box office success as well.
Over the last several weeks, Jonathan Demme's 1984 concert film "Stop Making Sense," featuring the Talking Heads, has been making the rounds in theaters. A24 recently remastered the film in 4K timed to its upcoming 40th anniversary and, somewhat quietly, the film has been doing quite well for itself. To date, it's made $4.5 million domestically in re-release, to go along with $641,000 internationally, including $171,000 from 258 screens in its most recent weekend, per Box Office Mojo. That's not bad for a movie that was originally released 39 years ago.
More to the point, the film carried a $1.2 million budget in its day. A24 recently acquired the rights and paid to do the restoration, but relative to what a movie typically costs to make, we're talking pennies here. The fact that it has made as much money as it's made over four weekends is impressive. The initial live 40th-anniversary screening with the band was released exclusively in IMAX and actually serves as the company's highest-grossing live event to date. I mean, hell, this movie's re-release got the Talking Heads back together. How cool is that?
A box office success 39 years in the making
"Stop Making Sense" was originally filmed at Hollywood's Pantages Theater in December of 1983 across three nights. Directed by the late, great Jonathan Demme ("The Silence of the Lambs"), it is widely regarded as one of the greatest — if not the single greatest — concert films ever made. It certainly doesn't hurt when you have a master filmmaker like Demme behind the camera. And having a respected company like A24, the studio behind hits like "Everything Everywhere All at Once" and "Hereditary," handling the restoration gives everything a little extra juice.
Looking at the larger picture here, this is good for A24 as the company probably didn't have to invest all that much in the film and they now are reaping the rewards. The studio is looking to shore up its finances in the near future, so any wins — even if they're relatively small when compared to what Taylor Swift is pulling off right now — are welcome.
The other, bigger thing here is that it's yet another example of specialty programming working for theaters. Yes, "The Eras Tour" is a much bigger example, but the fact that people (many of whom weren't even alive when the movie was filmed) turned up to fill IMAX theaters to see the Talking Heads is no small thing. As Hollywood at large continues to reckon with the future, programming like this is not only welcome, but necessary. Things that feel like events capable of getting people into theaters, particularly those who might otherwise be content to just stay home, are needed. More of this, please.
"Stop Making Sense" is in select theaters now.