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Machine Gun Kelly’s hometown gig gets cinema treatment

Machine Gun Kelly is taking his 2022 Mainstream Sellout Tour to cinemas worldwide, for one night only.

The film, titled Machine Gun Kelly: Mainstream Sellout Live from Cleveland: The Pink Era, will recap the star’s sold-out hometown concert at the FirstEnergy Stadium (cap. 50,000) in Cleveland, Ohio, and give fans a behind-the-scenes peek at the whole tour.

The cut will include fan favourite hits from the night’s set list, including ‘Bloody Valentine,’ ‘lonely,’ ‘el diablo,’ ‘my ex’s best friend,’ ‘Till I Die,’ ‘I Think I’m OKAY,’ among others.

The film, directed by Sam Cahill, will be launched in cinemas on the 13 May via Trafalgar Releasing, the company behind BTS’s hugely successful cinema treatments.

The sellout concert in his hometown saw MGK become the first and only Ohio native to sell out the largest venue in the city

“Machine Gun Kelly’s remarkable journey from Cleveland to meteoric superstardom and back to where it all began gives us an unfiltered look at the emotion and rawness of coming home,” says Kymberli Frueh, SVP of programming and content acquisitions for Trafalgar Releasing. “We are so lucky that this moment was captured so it can be shared with fans across the globe.”

The Mainstream Sellout Tour encompassed 52 concerts across North America and Europe. More than 425,000 tickets were sold for the North American leg alone and several shows, including Madison Square Garden in New York, sold out.

The sellout concert in his hometown saw Machine Gun Kelly become the first and only Ohio native to sell out the largest venue in the city.

Machine Gun Kelly: Mainstream Sellout Live from Cleveland: The Pink Era is the first full-length feature distributed by Floor 13.

 


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BTS gross $53m from latest cinema release

K-pop stars BTS are continuing their record-breaking reign at the box office, grossing more than $53 million with their latest cinema release.

BTS: Yet To Come in Cinemas was screened in more than 5,817 cinemas across 128 countries, with Japan, USA and Mexico among the top-performing territories.

Across the opening weekend, the concert film scored multiple top five positions in territories including Japan, Korea, Italy, and Spain, plus the top ten in UK, Germany, Peru, and Australia. The project also reached number one in Mexico, Colombia, and the Philippines, plus the number one international release in India.

The film documented the group’s BTS Yet to Come in Busan concert, which took place at Busan Asiad Main Stadium on 15 October to promote the city’s World 2030 Expo bid.

The free show was attended by a 50,000-strong crowd, with 10,000 and 2,000 people tuning in via real-life “Live Play” broadcasts.

The concert was re-edited and remixed for the big screen and featured “new close-up angles and a whole new view of the entire concert”. In addition to a regular cinema format, BTS: Yet to Come in Cinemas was also screened in multiple special formats, such as ScreenX, 4DX and 4DX Screen.

“This figure is a testament to the strong relationships and collaborative efforts between CJ, HYBE, and Trafalgar”

“We are deeply gratified by the fact that one-fourth of our worldwide box office sales can be attributed to the special formats with ScreenX and 4DX, that we offered for the BTS concerts,” says Jong Ryul Kim, CEO of CJ 4DPLEX.

“This figure is a testament to the strong relationships and collaborative efforts between CJ, HYBE, and Trafalgar. We take great pride in this achievement and extend our sincere gratitude to viewers worldwide for their unwavering support.”

Marc Allenby, CEO of Trafalgar Releasing – which presented the film alongside CJ 4DPlex – adds: “We are delighted to see BTS: Yet To Come In Cinemas exceed an incredible $50m milestone at the box office. This figure is testament to the group, the ongoing dedication of the audiences and a credit to the international partnerships that made this landmark cinema event possible.”

The event was HYBE and Trafalgar Releasing’s fifth global title with the pop icons, after Burn the Stage: The Movie (2018), Bring the Soul: The Movie (2019), Break the Silence: The Movie (2020) and BTS Permission to Dance on Stage Seoul: Live Viewing (2022).

BTS’ one-off Busan concert marked their final performance together for some time, due to their members’ mandatory military service.

 


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Cinemas to screen Coldplay Buenos Aires concert

Coldplay have announced a special live broadcast of the Music Of The Spheres World Tour from Buenos Aires’ River Plate Stadium, which will be screened in thousands of cinemas across more than 70 countries.

The 70,000-cap show in Argentina on 28 October (or 29 October, depending on the timezone) will mark the first ever live worldwide cinema broadcast of a concert from Latin America.

Directed by BAFTA-winning and Grammy-nominated director Paul Dugdale, the presentation sees the band team up once more with Trafalgar Releasing, which is also serving as executive producer alongside CJ 4DPlex.

“We are delighted to be partnering again with the Coldplay team on this major live broadcast, having established a successful partnership with the 2018 documentary release A Head Full Of Dreams,” says Trafalgar Releasing CEO Marc Allenby.

Ticket sales for the Music Of The Spheres World Tour recently passed 5.4 million

“We are also extending our partnership with CJ 4DPlex on this live event featuring one of the world’s biggest artists, giving fans the opportunity to experience the phenomenal Music Of The Spheres tour on the big screen across the globe in unison.”

Repeat screenings will also be available worldwide. The live event is supported by Coldplay’s official logistics partner DHL, which is partnering with the band to reduce carbon emissions from their world tour.

Ticket sales for the Music Of The Spheres World Tour recently passed 5.4 million after UK and European stadium dates went on sale for 2023.

Check out the latest issue of IQ for an in-depth look at the groundbreaking tour.

 


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LIVENow partners on Lizzo and Gorillaz events

Livestream company LiveNow has announced upcoming presentations with Lizzo and Gorillaz.

Lizzo will be the final 2021 headliner for American Express Unstaged digital music series on 4 December. The performance will take place in Miami in front of a live audience and will stream exclusively on the LiveNow platform and will be available to watch on demand for 48 hours.

Past Unstaged headliners have included Sam Smith, Alica Keys and Maroon 5.

In addition, LiveNow has partnered with Trafalgar Releasing to bring Gorillaz present Song Machine Live From Kong to the big screen. Captured at the band’s Kong Studios HQ in London, the “star-studded virtual experience”, will be broadcast in cinemas worldwide for one day only on 8 December. 

LiveNow previously worked with Gorillaz on their livestream event, Song Machine Live, which was broadcast live around the world with three shows across three time zones on 12-13 December last year.

We look forward to welcoming cinema audiences to experience their outstanding live show on the big screen

“We saw great success with Gorillaz’ previous cinema event Reject False Icons, and we look forward to welcoming cinema audiences to experience their outstanding live show on the big screen, with immersive surround sound and exclusive bonus content,” says Trafalgar Releasing CEO Marc Allenby. 

James Massing, chief commercial officer at LiveNow, explains the firm’s goal is to give fans “unparalleled access to the ultimate live music experiences”.

“Last year, we brought Gorillaz fans a one-off opportunity to watch the band perform their critically acclaimed album during a time where live music stopped,” he says. “We’re proud to share the performance once again but on the big screen.”

Other music events broadcast by LiveNow in 2020 included some of the biggest live streams of the year, including One World: Together at HomeDua Lipa’s Studio 2054, Ellie Goulding’s Brightest Blue Experience, Gorillaz’ Song Machine Live from Kong and Pete Tong’s O Come All Ye Ravers.

 


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Glasto’s Live at Worthy Farm gets cinema release

Glastonbury’s Festival’s upcoming Live at Worthy Farm live stream will also be broadcast at cinemas around the UK, organisers have announced.

Through a partnership with Trafalgar Releasing – the company behind record-breaking concert film releases by the likes of BTS and Coldplay, the latter of whom will play Live at Worthy Farm – the virtual festival, broadcast from Glastonbury’s Worthy Home site on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 May, will screen in tandem at cinemas across the UK on Saturday.

Tickets for the cinema screenings, which go on sale today (12 May), are priced from £19.99.

Glastonbury Festival also today announced set times and new guests for the five-hour event, with a “unique spoken-word narrative” featuring PJ Harvey, Jarvis Cocker, Kae Tempest, George the Poet, Kurupt FM, Little Amal and festival founder Michael Eavis adding to previously announced sets from artists including Coldplay, Damon Albarn, Haim, Idles and Jorja Smith.

Live at Worthy Farm will be broadcast across four separate time zones (for EMEA; central, south and the east coast of North America; the west coast of North America; and Asia Pacific) on Saturday, with two global “encore” screenings on Sunday 23rd, at 2pm and 7pm BST. Tickets are priced at priced at £20, €23, US$27.50 & A$35.

 


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BTS smash own cinema record with Bring the Soul

Bring the Soul: The Movie, the latest film by K-pop superstars BTS, broke the admissions and box-office records for an ‘event cinema’ release, the band’s label, Big Hit, and the film’s distributor, Trafalgar Releasing, have announced.

Bring the Soul, which opened in a record 112 countries on 7 August, gained 2.55 million admissions across 5,000 cinemas, for a global box-office take of over $24m.

Bring the Soul: The Movie, which finds BTS at the end of their Love Yourself tour of Europe, also reached No 10 in the US in its opening weekend, and number nine in the UK.

The film follows the boy band’s debut, Burn the Stage: The Movie, based on the 2017 Wings tour, which sold more than 1.4m tickets – then a record for an event cinema (ie music, sport, comedy, etc.) release – and follow-up Love Yourself in Seoul, released in January.

BTS fans spent a collective €3.5m on livestreaming the group’s Wembley Stadium shows when the Love Yourself tour visited London in May.

 


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Widest-ever event cinema release for BTS’s Bring the Soul

Bring the Soul: The Movie, the third BTS feature film, has had the widest-ever release for an ‘event cinema’ film, as management company Big Hit Entertainment and film distributor Trafalgar Releasing bet on another record-breaking release for the K-pop phenoms.

The film, which opened in cinemas on Wednesday (7 August) and finds the boy band at the end of their Love Yourself tour of Europe, will open in a record 112 countries through Sunday 11 August.

It follows debut film Burn the Stage: The Movie, based on the 2017 Wings tour, which sold more than 1.4m tickets – a record for an event cinema (ie music, sport, comedy, etc.) release – and follow-up Love Yourself in Seoul, released in January.

Tickets to see the film, which is showing at most local cinemas, is available from Bring the Soul’s website, bringthesoulthemovie.com.

 


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BTS smash box-office records with tour movie

Burn the Stage: the Movie, the first film from K-pop superstars BTS, has sold the highest-ever number of tickets for an ‘event cinema’ release, beating previous record-holders One Direction.

The film, which opened on 15 November, has sold more than 1.4 tickets – compared to 1.2m total for One Direction: Where We Are – according to distributor Trafalgar Releasing, which last week achieved similar success with Coldplay’s A Head Full of Dreams, shifting 300,000+ tickets in a single night.

That 1.4m figure is a record figure for an event, or alternative content (music, sport, comedy, etc.), cinema release. At press time, Burn the Stage had seen limited release in 79 countries, in more than 2,650 cinemas, for a global box-office tally of around US$14m.

Johnny Carr, alternative content manager for Vue Cinemas (UK and Ireland), says: “At Vue, we were delighted to have welcomed so many fans to screenings of both A Head Full of Dreams and Burn the Stage: the Movie.

“Events like these bring in new audiences to experience the power of the big screen. They afford artists the opportunity to give their fan base a unique and unforgettable night out.

“Events like these bring in new audiences to experience the power of the big screen”

“The feedback from audiences has been incredible, with many BTS fans booking to see an additional encore performance.”

Burn the Stage and A Head Full of Dreams close a profitable 2018 for music releases from Trafalgar Releasing, which also saw the UK-based distributor bring Distant Sky: Live in Copenhagen and Muse: Drones World Tour to cinemas around the world.

CEO Marc Allenby says: “It’s been extraordinary to witness yet again, through these two very distinct acts, the power of the big screen to bring fans together. I’m proud of the team at Trafalgar for pulling off an incredibly busy week and look forward to seeing what 2019 brings for us.”

The follow-up to the Wings tour (on which Burn the Stage is based), the Love Yourself world tour, was announced in April, with a history-making stadium date at Citi Field in New York wrapping up a US leg last month.

 


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Coldplay: A Head Full of Dreams sells 300k tickets in one night

Mat Whitecross’s new Coldplay film, A Head Full of Dreams, sold more than 300,000 tickets for a global gross of over US$3.5m for Wednesday’s one-night-only cinema screening.

Charting the band’s 20-plus-year journey towards stadium-filling superstardom, Coldplay: A Head Full of Dreams combines live footage from the recent A Head Full of Dreams stadium tour – the third highest-grossing of all time – with archive material captured over the past three decades.

The film was shown at 2,650 cinemas globally on 14 November, reaching the number-one spot on the Dutch film chart, No2 in the UK, Australia and Italy and No5 in the US.

“It was fantastic to launch the documentary with the one-night-only cinema release,” comments Coldplay manager Dave Holmes. “We saw Coldplay fans from every corner of the globe heading to cinemas to experience the film together, and the feedback has been incredibly positive.

“We saw Coldplay fans from every corner of the globe heading to cinemas to experience the film together”

It’s been great working alongside Trafalgar on such a well-received global event.”

Trafalgar CEO Marc Allenby adds: “It’s been an exciting 2018 for Trafalgar Releasing and we are so pleased to see A Head Full of Dreams achieve such a fantastic record-breaking box office. Collaborating closely with Warner Music, Parlophone and Dave Holmes Management, we were able to talk directly to fans of Coldplay around the world, who came out to support the film’s release in cinemas.”

Trafalgar’s next release is Burn The Stage: the Movie, the first film from K-pop sensations BTS, which plays from yesterday (15 November), with coordinated encores over the weekend.

 


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