“The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert” premiered in select IMAX theatres

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On this day, 53 years after the last public performance of The Beatles on the rooftop of the Apple building, a film of this performance (restored by Peter Jackson and his team for the documentary series “The Beatles – Get Back” released in 2021) was screened on select theatres in US and UK, using the IMAX technology.

Two weeks later, from February 11 to 13, 2022, the film was screened in various theatres around the world.

From Wikipedia:

IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating.

From The Beatles, January 5, 2022:

BURBANK, Calif. (January 5, 2022)—The Beatles’ unforgettable concert on the rooftop of Apple Corps’ Savile Row headquarters on January 30, 1969, will debut as a 60-minute feature at an Exclusive IMAX® Event Screening and Filmmaker Q&A on January 30, 2022.

To celebrate the anniversary of the landmark performance, select IMAX® theaters will host the screenings with a filmmaker Q&A and give away exclusive mini-posters. The Q&A will be broadcast via satellite simultaneously to all connected IMAX locations. “I’m thrilled that the rooftop concert from ‘The Beatles: Get Back’ is going to be experienced in IMAX, on that huge screen,” says director/producer Peter Jackson. “It’s The Beatles’ last concert, and it’s the absolute perfect way to see and hear it.”

“Ever since Peter Jackson’s beautiful and illuminating docuseries debuted, we’ve heard non-stop from fans who want to experience its unforgettable rooftop performance in IMAX,” says Megan Colligan, president of IMAX Entertainment. “We are so excited to partner with Disney to bring ‘Get Back’ to an entirely new stage and give Beatles fans everywhere a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch and hear their heroes in the unrivalled sight and sound of IMAX.”

The concert, which features in its entirety in Peter Jackson’s original docuseries “The Beatles: Get Back,” will be optimized for IMAX screens, digitally remastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® with proprietary IMAX DMR® (Digital Remastering) technology. Tickets for the Exclusive IMAX Event Screening and Filmmaker Q&A on January 30, 2022, are currently on sale at: tickets.imax.com.

A global theatrical engagement of the 60-minute feature, “The Beatles: Get Back–The Rooftop Concert,” will then run February 11-13, 2022. The complete docuseries, “The Beatles: Get Back,” will also be available on Blu-ray and DVD in the U.S. on February 8, 2022.

Ever since Peter Jackson’s beautiful and illuminating docuseries debuted, we’ve heard non-stop from fans who want to experience its unforgettable rooftop performance in IMAX. We are so excited to partner with Disney to bring ‘Get Back’ to an entirely new stage and give Beatles fans everywhere a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch and hear their heroes in the unrivalled sight and sound of IMAX.

Megan Colligan, president of IMAX Entertainment – From Boxoffice (boxofficepro.com), January 5, 2022

From The Hollywood Reporter, January 30, 2022:

In commemoration of the iconic event, Disney and Imax on Sunday unveiled a special theatrical version of Peter Jackson’s documentary The Beatles: Get Back that played to near-sellout crowds in nearly 70 Imax theaters across North America and at the BFI Imax theater in London.

Sunday’s debut of the 60-minute film — which features the roughly 45-minute concert in its entirety — was accompanied by a live Q&A with Jackson and BBC broadcaster, author and musician Matt Everitt that was beamed into cinemas. […]

According to Imax, a majority of Sunday’s locations were sold out in cities including New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Charlotte, St. Paul, Pittsburgh, San Antonio and Cleveland. The special even generated roughly $500,000 in grosses. […]

During the Q&A session that followed the screening, Peter Jackson explained the following:

At yesterday’s global premiere of the IMAX presentation of The Beatles Get Back: The Rooftop Concert (attended by SDE in London), director Peter Jackson revealed that he would love to offer an extended cut of the full Get Back documentary that would add three to four hours of footage, including full length performance clips and “important conversations” that deserve to be heard.

He urged fans to petition Disney and Apple Corps, if this is something they would like to see, since he indicated that Disney may be reluctant to allow him to do this.

Jackson also revealed that, as part of the research for his editing process, he and his team interviewed as many people as they could, who were there at the time, so he could understand “the truth” of the events that took place, including during the famous Rooftop Concert sequence. He told the audience that he thought if they were going to interview all these people, they may as well film them “for posterity”. In yesterday’s live interview with Jackson, which was broadcast around the world to various IMAX cinemas, he showed a clip of the infamous PC Ray Dagg (the policeman who tried to stop the concert) being interviewed on the top of 3 Savile Row, which would have taken place a few years ago. Peter said that if/when Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s original Let It Be was issued on DVD or blu-ray, he hoped such interviews might form part of the bonus material.

Paul Sinclair – From Peter Jackson would love to offer an ‘extended cut’ of The Beatles Get Back – SuperDeluxeEdition – January 31, 2022

Last updated on November 22, 2022