K-pop sensation BTS’ “Burn the Stage: The Movie” is set for a global theatrical encore. Having bagged the event-cinema attendance record for its limited run earlier this month, the film is heading back into theaters around the world.
Distributor Trafalgar Releasing told Variety that there will be encore showings of “Burn the Stage: The Movie” in 1,400 cinemas globally across 2,696 screens. The U.K. release will be this weekend, followed by other territories over the next few weeks. There will be new screenings in the U.S., Australasia, Germany, Latin America and Indonesia, among other locations. The film will also have its debut in India.
In the U.S., tickets for the added Dec. 5-6 run go on sale Monday, with the AMC, Regal, and Cinemark chains all back on board.
The encore screenings mean that the film of BTS’ Wings Tour is likely to claim the all-time box office record for an event-cinema movie. It had already notched the record for most admissions, with more than 1.4 million during its original run, eclipsing the previous record-holder, “One Direction: Where We Are.”
“Burn the Stage: The Movie” has pulled in $14 million, matching “One Direction: Where We Are.” The new showings should propel the Korean boy-band past One Direction at the box office. The film’s unprecedented success in English-language markets is even more remarkable given that it is subtitled.
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U.K.-based Trafalgar specializes in event cinema and has been building up its U.S. team this year, adding Kymberli Frueh and others to its ranks. That has allowed it to work across time zones and around the clock on promoting the BTS film, CEO Marc Allenby said.
“It’s fan- and content-led, but what we’ve built is the infrastructure so that, when something really hot touches our company, we have the ability to maximize it,” he said. “We’re regularly distributing into 70 to 80 countries globally, and we understand the nuances.”
BTS has achieved global superstardom, with more than 550,000 fans turning out for its Wings Tour, which encompassed 40 concerts in 19 cities.
“We often talk about event cinema uniting fan groups with a cinema experience…and that’s so clearly true in the case of BTS,” Allenby said. “They were selling out shows within minutes of going on sale. [Fans] knew exactly when tickets would be available. There are stories of a group of 300 girls arriving at a cinema in Mexico demanding the manager sell them tickets before they were on sale.”
How you build on the success of films such as “Burn the Stage” and “Coldplay: A Head Full of Dreams,” another successful Trafalgar release, is a live question for the distributor. “There are lots of conversations around the specifics of K-pop, and in general for me, this really helps demonstrate the legitimacy of a cinema release for the music industry,” Allenby said. “With the right artist and campaign and the right engagement from label and management, we can really deliver something together.”