The latest: Billie Eilish and James Cameron team up for a cinematic concert experience with the Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour. In theaters everywhere this weekend!
So you’re determined to somehow catch Taylor Swift and Talking Heads in concert in the same week. We hope you’re not thinking about shattering the fabric of time, when instead you can simply experience the power of the concert film with theatrical releases of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Stop Making Sense, on the big screen one after the other.
This concert-hopping was possible in the fall of 2023 when the two films were released in close succession, with Stop Making Sense on its 40th anniversary victory reunion and The Eras Tour bringing audiences together globally for Swift’s nearly 3-hour extravagant show. Both represent the musicians at the peak of their powers, and show off the concert film’s special ability to bring like-minded audiences for communal intimacy in theaters.
With that said, we’re ranking the best concert movies of all time, ranked by Tomatometer, with Certified Fresh films first. Here, you’ll find arena pop extravaganzas (with a little emotion – thanks Katy Perry: Part of Me); more intimate – but no less rousing – moments of music history (witness Aretha Franklin in Amazing Grace); an epic street party (remember those? Dave Chappelle does…); and some of the biggest festival events out there (from Beychella to Woodstock).
You’ll also find some of the biggest names in music: Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Lady Gaga, Janis Joplin, Springsteen, Wu-Tang Clan, and more. The majority of films included are pure concert docs – recordings of live shows with little fuss and extraneous material – but a handful do take a more traditional documentary format, with interviews and behind-the-scenes tour footage. We included those because of the amount of live concert footage they feature, Marley and Madonna: Truth or Dare among them.
