Prince Tribute News: 'Purple Rain' To Be Screened In More Theaters
A few days after the death of rock icon Prince last week, theater networks AMC and Carmike decided to do special screenings of Prince's iconic movie "Purple Rain" in selected theater outlets. According to Vanity Fair, it offered Prince fans and the public a way to remember the rock icon as well as to "express their grief" at the sudden demise of a music legend. The screenings started April 23 and will run until April 27. Initially, only 87 AMC theaters were booked for the screenings. On April 26 however, AMC announced that they were adding more theaters because of fan demand to watch the film.
According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, the film will be shown in a total of 212 AC theaters starting Friday, April 29. This accounts for more than half of the theaters under the AMC circuit. The film was re-released in cooperation with Warner Bros. According to sources inside AMC, the film had "the highest percentage of sold-out shows of any title playing in the initial 87 cinemas." Warner Bros. has not revealed gross earnings so far, however.
Because of fan demand, AMC is bringing the film to more theaters. This is in addition to the 80 locations of the Carmike theater network and the smaller theater circuits like Cinefamily in Los Angeles.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
'Purple Rain' was originally released in 1984 at the height of Prince's career. The movie was a romance-musical where Prince played the role of the Kid, a Minneapolis-based young musician struggling to get a break into the music business. According to Vanity Fair, it is a quasi-biographical film as it reflects Prince's own "journey to stardom." The Kid lives in an abusive family environment growing and falls in love with a girl whom he must also fight for. The film became a cult classic. It was also a box office success, grossing over $80 million on a $7.2 million budget.
