A concert film of Queen's 1986 performance in Hungary, the band's final filmed show with Freddie Mercury, is heading to the biggest screens available this fall. Queen Budapest opens October 7 in more than 2,000 cinemas, including IMAX screens.
The film's trailer opens with Mercury alone on stage delivering one of his famous vocal calls before cutting to the band playing "We Will Rock You" and snippets of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Are the Champions." Screenings will include a new interview with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor reflecting on the concert, which took place July 27, 1986, at Budapest's Népstadion for a reported 80,000 ticket holders and an estimated 45,000 additional fans listening outside the stadium.
The original show featured a hit-filled 25-song set that included "Under Pressure," "Another One Bites the Dust," "I Want to Break Free" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," along with an acoustic rendition of the Hungarian folk song "Tavaszi Szél Vizet Áraszt." Footage was shot on 35mm by what producers describe as some of Hungary's best cameramen and has now been restored to 4K using equipment at Peter Jackson's Park Road Post Production facility in New Zealand, with a newly remixed soundtrack coming to CD and triple-LP alongside Blu-ray and DVD releases of the film on October 30.
Queen concluded their Magic Tour with a UK show on August 9, 1986, making the Budapest concert the last time Mercury performed with the full band before his death in 1991. The film's IMAX release gives audiences their biggest-ever look at a performance long treasured by rock fans largely through bootleg footage and smaller-format releases.
Full ticketing details are available on a dedicated website for the release, first confirmed for cinemas worldwide last month, which arrives as part of a broader wave of legacy concert films finding new life on giant screens, following Sam Mendes' four-film Beatles project moving into production at Abbey Road Studios earlier this month.
The facts
- Queen Budapest opens October 7 in over 2,000 cinemas
- Filmed July 27, 1986, at Budapest's Népstadion
- Freddie Mercury's final filmed performance with Queen
- Restored in 4K at Peter Jackson's Park Road Post Production
- Blu-ray, DVD and soundtrack releases follow October 30
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