Despite being available on both PVOD and the HBO Max streaming service, director Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis is still making noise at the box office. The maximalist music biopic has now passed the $150 million mark at the domestic box office, after over two months of release. It's currently the eighth-biggest film of the year, ahead of major titles such as Nope, Lightyear and Uncharted. Worldwide, the film has made more than $280 million, and has a shot at passing the $300 million mark when the dust settles. As they say, it ain’t over till the fat lady sings, or until Tom Hanks’ Colonel Tom Parker croaks.
Told through the perspective of the controversial Colonel Parker — one of Luhrmann's many out-there directorial choices — Elvis uses The King of Rock and Roll’s life as a vessel through which to tell the story of America. The film received mostly positive reviews after a terrific premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, but was also criticized for its 160-minute runtime, and Luhrmann’s framing device. Virtually everyone, however, was in agreement about Austin Butler’s star-making central performance.
Elvis' box office success is a win for cinemas, yes, but it’s also a much-needed shot in the arm for movies directed at older audiences. Last year was particularly dismal for adult-skewing dramas, with everything from Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story to Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel bombing. The sole outlier was Scott’s other film, House of Gucci, which made over $150 million worldwide against a reported $75 million budget, thanks mostly to Lady Gaga’s buzzy central performance and its salacious premise.
Elvis has long since recovered its reported $85 million budget, and now, it’s just a matter of seeing how far the film can go. With an awards campaign around the corner — the film is expected to be a major contender at this year’s Oscars — we can expect it to have at least a minor resurgence over the next few months. It’s already the second-biggest music biopic worldwide behind Bohemian Rhapsody, the biggest Warner Bros. title of the pandemic (domestically), and the second-biggest film of Luhrmann’s storied career. The Australian filmmaker’s biggest film remains his lavish 3D adaptation of The Great Gatsby, which defied so-so reviews and legged it to over $350 million worldwide in 2013, mostly on the strength of Leonardo DiCaprio’s star-power.
Elvis was always designed for the big screen, and Warner Bros. made the smart decision to hold onto it through the entire pandemic (like Paramount did with Top Gun: Maverick). The studio arguably pulled the trigger too soon on Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, but that’s a discussion for another time.
Elvis was made available for Premium Digital Ownership and for Video OnDemand rental on August 9, and will later be released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-Ray, and DVD on September 13. The film was released on HBO Max on September 2. You can watch our interview with Luhrmann here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.