The Beatles’ Rooftop Concert Gets IMAX Release

When Paul McCartney sang about getting back to where you once belonged, he was apparently referring to IMAX theaters. Disney announced today that the full 60-minute concert given by the Beatles atop their company’s London headquarters on January 30, 1969 will get released in IMAX on January 30 as The Beatles: Get Back — The Rooftop Concert. Kind of a perfect way to celebrate the show’s anniversary.

The film is drawn from the recently released three-part miniseries The Beatles: Get Back directed by Peter Jackson. The IMAX event will include a filmmaker Q&A with Jackson, along with giveaways. In a press release, Jackson said “I’m thrilled that the rooftop concert from The Beatles: Get Back is going to be experienced in IMAX, on that huge screen. It’s The Beatles’ last concert, and it’s the absolute perfect way to see and hear it.”

The Beatles: Get Back was edited by Jackson over the course of several years from the original raw footage shot for the 1970 documentary Let It Be. The original concept was to capture the Beatles writing and recording a new album and then perform the new material at a big concert, the band’s first in several years. But the recording sessions were marked by strife in the band and the big concert, which was supposed to be broadcast on television, eventually became the spontaneous rooftop show. Let It Be had been out of print for decades when the material was given to Jackson to rework. He originally planned a theatrical film, but it eventually evolved into an entire miniseries, which debuted on Disney+ last November.

The Rooftop Concert will also be “optimized for IMAX screens, digitally remastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® with proprietary IMAX DMR® (Digital Remastering) technology” (whatever that means). And if you don’t want to head to a movie theater right now for any reason, or you don’t live near an IMAX, The Beatles: Get Back is currently streaming in its entirety — including the rooftop concert — on Disney+.

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