Monday night’s special 40th anniversary screening of Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense at the Toronto Film Festival is now Imax’s highest-grossing live event, the company said. The groundbreaking Talking Heads concert film, from A24, earned $640,839 and sold out 25 screens across 165 Imax locations in North America and the BFI Imax in London.
The remastered world premiere at Cineplex’s Scotiabank Imax Theatre in Toronto was followed by a Q&A live-streamed from TIFF and moderated by filmmaker Spike Lee with all four original band members in attendance: David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison. Lee called it “the greatest concert film ever.”
“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 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.”
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The 4K-remastered 1984 concert film produced by Gary Goetzman, which Demme shot at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood over the course of a week in December 1983, will have a full theatrical run exclusively in Imax starting September 22, expanding to theaters nationwide the following week.
Imax’s biggest live event until now had been Brandi Carlile: In The Canyon Haze – Live from Laurel Canyon, which grossed $505,000 in September 2022.