A crowning achievement for Elvis documentary

Baz Luhrmann's concert movie makes a swaggering debut at the box office.

- BY CERYS DAVIES

THE MOVIE “EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert” made the third biggest opening for a documentary and drew new attention to concert films.

(Neon)

Nearly 60 years after leaving his movie star career behind, Elvis Presley is once again a hit at the box office.

After Baz Luhrmann's 2022 “Elvis” and Sofia Coppola’s 2023 “Priscilla,” the King of Rock 'n' Roll cracked the box office’s top 10 highest-grossing films last weekend for the third time in less than four years.

Luhrmann's hybrid concert film/documentary, “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” came in fifth place domestically and earned a total of $8.5 million globally during its first weekend in wide release. So far, the screenings have earned around $15 million cumulatively.

The movie, shown in more than 5,000 locations, ranked below “Scream 7” and “Goat,” which topped last week's 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 the latest sign that music-themed documentaries and concert films continue to be a box-office draw for both dedicated fans and regular moviegoers, even as studios focus on developing biopics of famous musicians such as the Beatles and Michael Jackson.

“What we’re seeing with the advent of life being lived so much online and staring at phones is that young people particularly crave to participate in groups, to go out to an event, and music films are an event in themselves,” Luhrmann said in a statement. “What's so gratifying is to see young audiences, even some who don’t know who Elvis is, who are clapping, singing and dancing along at the screen. I think we're going to see a lot more event music cinema in the future.”