Overview
- The distributor announced Wednesday that the one-week North American engagement for Ken Russell’s restored director’s cut will be extended because ticket sales have remained strong.
- The reissue opened in 350 U.S. locations and grossed roughly $1.7 million, producing a $4,925 per-screen average that outperformed most new wide releases on a per-theater basis.
- The version on release combines a 2004 reconstruction supervised by Ken Russell and editor Michael Bradsell with a fresh 4K scan from the original camera negatives and audio restored from 35mm mag, and it is being presented as the definitive uncensored cut.
- A phased international rollout is planned with BFI set to release the film in the U.K. and Ireland on October 30 and theatrical dates already announced for Poland, France, Australia/New Zealand, Germany/Austria, Greece, and the Netherlands.
- The re-release has revived debate over the film’s graphic, blasphemous imagery, and it coincides with Rupert Russell’s new documentary Mad Dad and a forthcoming BFI retrospective that together aim to reassess Ken Russell’s legacy.