Stages to silver screens: The rise of the concert film
While blockbuster tours come and go, tour films live on in cinemas and in homes to be watched and rewatched long after an artist takes their final bow.
“One of the best places to see a concert is live in a stadium or arena – but everybody gets a front-row seat in the movie theatre,” says Ray Nutt, CEO of US-based speciality film distributor Fathom Entertainment.
Iconic concert films stretch back for decades and can be as simple as show-to-screen translations – think Led Zeppelin’s 1976 The Song Remains the Same documenting their three-night stand at NYC’s Madison Square Garden – or as complex as made-for-film performances with behind-the-scenes footage.
Nowadays, seemingly every major act has a visual project to accompany their live shows, with Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Coldplay, BTS, One Direction, and Miley Cyrus all being standouts from the 21st century.
Concert films have hit a new stride alongside technological advancements and global cinematic and streaming experiences, skyrocketing their reach alongside the post-pandemic touring boom.
“To have a huge global tour captured for prosperity makes sense, but it is a great opportunity for fans who would not otherwise get to experience it”
Let’s Get Digital
Though concert films are not a new venture, the pandemic shifted artists’ projects and delivery to an increasingly digital format.
“Artists are pushing their live shows creatively like never before, and in the digital age, fans seem to value the live experience as the ultimate representation of their favourite artists,” says Tom Colbourne, founder and CEO of Blink. “Fans that attend want to relive the night and all the little details in the show, and for those that couldn’t attend, the filmed show is the next best thing.”
California-based production company Blink specialises in live music and has produced films for Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and Lady Gaga. Their screen content division is also involved in creating the live performance visuals, giving the firm a unique insight into artistic direction.
With a finite number of tickets available for any tour, films allow fans to join in wherever they are. As the average concert ticket price jumped 36% between 2019 and 2023, according to Statista, giving audiences ‘the best seat in the house’ can help ease the sting of missing out on a sold-out trek or allow them to relive the experience, again and again.
“To have a huge global tour captured for prosperity makes sense, but it is a great opportunity for fans who would not otherwise get to experience it. There’s the financial side, but there’s also just plain engagement and access and democratising of the process,” says Marc Allenby, CEO of Trafalgar Releasing.
“Cinema is undoubtedly the best audio and best visual experience, plus the communal collective”
Trafalgar is the global leader in distribution, delivering concert films like Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé to thousands of theatres worldwide. BTS, Coldplay, Usher, and Laufey have all used Trafalgar’s services for their films, too.
And perhaps the most notable example of demand outweighing supply is Taylor Swift’s record-obliterating Eras Tour, which grossed an estimated $2bn and sold over 10.1m tickets worldwide.
The accompanying film, released halfway through the global trek, documented a condensed show from the tour’s initial North American leg and quickly became the highest-grossing concert film of all time, earning over $261m at the box office before landing on streaming service Disney+.
To Stream or Not to Stream?
There is a fork in the road where artists and management need to decide whether to go the cinema route or direct to streaming.
The answer often lies in the finances, with royalties from ticket sales being one draw for artist teams. For streaming, a flat fee for a set period of licensing is typical; but each deal is unique, with no one-size-fits-all approach.
“Cinema is undoubtedly the best audio and best visual experience, plus the communal collective. With streaming, you’re looking at a wider reach with no limitation on geography or appointment-to-view restrictions. The two co-exist as opposed to compete,” Allenby says.
“Dua wanted to push the boundaries and perform the album in a different way; something very intimate”
“Most management and labels are seeing the financial benefit but also the wider halo benefit of the whole release. There’s marketing profile, prestige, fan engagement, ability to sell merchandise, lots of other kinds of pieces and touchpoints, and ultimately, greater listenership, album sales,” he adds.
Despite being in the midst of her ongoing Radical Optimism Tour, in October, Dua Lipa stopped by London’s Royal Albert Hall (cap. 5,272) to conduct a one-off performance, televised to fans worldwide and recorded for a unique live album.
Featuring the 53-piece Heritage Orchestra, a 14-strong choir, and a seven-piece band, An Evening with Dua Lipa served as a unique gift for the fans: “Dua wanted to push the boundaries and perform the album in a different way; something very intimate, stripping the songs back and then building them up again,” says her manager and father Dukagjin Lipa.
Initially airing to over 1.6m on the UK’s ITV last December, the special was then broadcast to a further 2.9m on the CBS network in the US, before launching on streaming platform Paramount+.
“It’s such an authentic portrayal of the show itself that we wanted people’s living room sofas to essentially be a seat at the Royal Albert Hall,” says Lipa. “But again, we wanted this to be inclusive, so having that window of opportunity to stream it after the fact was also important to us.”
“We’re using very sophisticated robotic cameras that can get into unobtrusive positions in the pit and even up on the stage with the artist”
Meeting fans where they are is a central theme to the conception of concert films, with artists like Dua Lipa being driven to produce an accessible, yet exceptional, version of their live performances.
“From an artist’s perspective, it gives them a platform to reach existing and new audiences, and in our case, we wanted to break down the boundaries of an ordinary show and create something iconic that shone a new light on the music, and ultimately showcased Dua’s world-class performance,” Lipa adds.
The Pros of Production
With the rise of fan-led livestreaming giving a (sometimes shaky) live capture of performances, artists are utilising filming as an extension of their creative vision with proper audio mixing and aesthetically aligned visual components.
Artists are heavily involved in the production process, which can begin up to six months before the filmed event. Depending on the lead time, Blink’s Colbourne says the team meets with promoter and ticketing teams to layout camera placements so as not to disrupt attendee experience – an issue simplified by new technologies.
“We’re using very sophisticated robotic cameras that can get into unobtrusive positions in the pit and even up on the stage with the artist,” he explains. Films are often crafted over multiple shows, depending on the performance’s complexity, with up to 30 cameras and 20 microphones deployed.
Music of the Spheres: Live at River Plate went on to reap $8.4m at the box office
For Lady Gaga’s 2024 Chromatica Ball film, which was filmed over just one show at LA’s Dodger Stadium (cap. 56,000), the Blink team used 30 cameras and meticulously planned the filming to ensure the team could capture the elaborate show. Gaga herself was involved from start to finish.
“We spent months in the edit suite with Gaga in person, who directed the film herself and was hands-on with every single cut,” the Grammy Award-nominated Colbourne says.
In-house production companies are also becoming standard for projects of this nature as the artistic vision takes the lead. Swift has Taylor Swift Productions, Beyoncé’s is Parkwood Entertainment, and Dua Lipa enlisted her own Radical22 Productions for her Royal Albert Hall show, alongside London- and Los Angeles-based specialists, Fulwell 73 Productions.
Prior to their 2023 global broadcast (and subsequent film) of their Music of the Spheres shows at Buenos Aires’ River Plate Stadium (cap. 84,567), Coldplay debuted Infinity Station Films to help support their creative vision. Music of the Spheres: Live at River Plate went on to reap $8.4m at the box office before being launched on concert and event streaming platform Veeps, with tickets priced at $3.99.
Where the film will be distributed, which is usually decided by the artist’s team at the beginning of the project, can steer how it’s filmed and edited, Colbourne says. Nonetheless, newfangled sound capture and delivery like Dolby Atmos spatial audio can be a powerful tool, “particularly if it’s a theatrical release and you can recreate the stadium sound,” he says.
Supergroup BTS holds four of the top 20 highest-grossing concert films of all time, raking in a gross of over $88.8m
For The Fans
Fans reign supreme as the core demographic for concert films: they’re ticket and merchandise buyers, music streamers, and engagement boosters. Capturing tours for the fan community is a leading, if not the key, motivator for tour-film projects.
Dua Lipa’s Royal Albert Hall special aired in between her shows in Asia in 2024 and 2025’s Australian, European, and North American dates, but “timing-wise, it also felt like the perfect moment to put on a show like this – we were nearing the end of what was a groundbreaking year and wanted to give fans something truly special,” says her manager father.
The medium can also help rising artists, or artists in a specific market, get exposed to new audiences around the world.
Films and streaming have undeniably helped deliver K-pop artists to a global audience. Supergroup BTS holds four of the top 20 highest-grossing concert films of all time, raking in a gross of over $88.8m.
A regional genre gone global, films capturing K-pop stars allow fans worldwide to communally experience tours centred in Asian markets and a glimpse into the greater world beyond the acts themselves.
One firm capitalising on this is Fathom Entertainment, a US-based distribution company that has circulated 83 concert films from artists like Elton John, Andrea Bocelli, André Rieu, and Garth Brooks over the last 20 years, representing roughly $52m in sales.
“Artists are looking for different ways to get their brand out there, and the movie theatre is certainly one of those ways”
Fathom operates the largest live satellite system to theatres in the US, allowing them to livestream (or stream time-delayed) concerts and events onto 2,200 screens in 1,100 domestic theatres – a “very cost-effective way to get a concert or live content,” says CEO Nutt.
Late last year, Fathom broadcast K-pop boyband SEVENTEEN’s [Right Here] World Tour show at Japan’s Kyocera Dome Osaka (51,000) on a time delay to US audiences. As this tour only visited five cities outside of Asia, providing an opportunity for fans to communally experience the show was essential to the group’s distribution.
“Artists are looking for different ways to get their brand out there, and the movie theatre is certainly one of those ways,” Nutt says.
Get the Show On & Off the Road
Audiences are already seeing music projects pop up in new domains as technology continues evolving. Charli XCX and Troye Sivan translated their SWEAT tour into a virtual reality experience through Meta Horizon, while Fortnite and Roblox are increasingly hosting events from stars like Elton John, Travis Scott, Karol G, and The Weeknd.
Perhaps the biggest indicator of where the concert film sector is headed has come in the form of direct-to-platform livestreaming.
“By leveraging our advanced technology and unmatched reach, we are breaking the barriers around privileged access to premium entertainment”
Back in December, Netflix’s Beyoncé Bowl captured her Christmas Day halftime performance at Houston’s NRG Stadium. The platform’s first foray into livestreamed music events paid off with an average live viewership of 27m, plus another 50m views on the standalone special that followed.
In late January, Coldplay delivered one of their “biggest-ever” 132,000-capacity shows at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India on Disney+ Hotstar.
“By leveraging our advanced technology and unmatched reach, we are breaking the barriers around privileged access to premium entertainment and making it available for all, fostering a shared celebration across the country,” said Sanjog Gupta, CEO of Hotstar’s parent company JioStar’s sports division, at the time of the announcement.
Opportunities in the filmed concert space are rife, with unexplored avenues fostering fresh creations. As the visual medium solidifies its place as an extension of an artist’s creative process, it doesn’t look like the credits will roll on concert films anytime soon.
This year promises much more of the same: Linkin Park has a cinematic release on tap after the recently reformed group captured their From Zero album launch show in São Paulo, Brazil – an event also livestreamed locally. It’s more than likely more acts will follow suit as 2025 is set to be another colossal year for touring.
Multiplied revenues, stronger fan connections, and the ability to transform a single local show into a sustained global event – concert films are quickly becoming an essential stage of album and touring cycles. The real question is, what comes next?
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