A24’s 4k restoration of Jonathan Demme’s “Stop Making Sense” had its global premiere on Monday night. It played at the Toronto Film Festival, while also live-streaming concurrently to 165 Imax locations. The 40th-anniversary screening, featuring a Q&A with the original Talking Head band members, shattered records for a live Imax event. It sold out in 25 screens in North America and the BFI Imax in London and earned $$640,839.
The world premiere took place on Monday, September 11 at Cineplex’s Scotiabank Imax theater in Toronto. The Q&A, moderated by Spike Lee, featured members David Bryne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison.
The previous record for an Imax live event was the “Brandi Carlile: In The Canyon Haze – Live from Laurel Canyon” connected theatre event. That one earned $505,000 in September of 2022.
“The unforgettable Stop Making Sense looks and sounds even more incredible in IMAX, and we’re excited to share this event with TIFF and our audiences everywhere,’ said Imax CEO Rich Gelfond. “This further establishes our ability to deliver live and music experiences with extraordinary quality, and we look forward to a great run ahead with our partners at A24.”
The 4K restoration of the acclaimed Talking Heads concert film will have a full theatrical run, releasing exclusively on Imax on September 22 and in theaters everywhere else on September 29.
Shot over three nights at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater in 1983, “Stop Making Sense” is considered one of the all-time great concert films. Leonard Maltin called it “one of the greatest rock movies ever made.” Roger Ebert declared that “the overwhelming impression throughout ‘Stop Making Sense’ is of enormous energy, of life being lived at a joyous high.”
“Stop Making Sense” was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2021. Tickets for this rerelease are available now.
