Peter Jackson’s WWI Doc ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’ Sets Brand New Fathom Events B.O. Record With $3M+, $5M+ To Date
EXCLUSIVE: We are hearing that the encore presentation of Peter Jackson’s WWI documentary They Shall Not Grow Old from Warner Bros. has set a brand new record for Fathom Events making an estimated $3.1-plus today from two showtimes at 1,122 theaters. That’s the highest-grossing single-day ever for a documentary playing via Fathom, and one of the top-grossing single-night presentations of any kind from the events company.
Originally, the Dec. 17 presentation of They Shall Not Grow Old set the record for Fathom with $2.3M. Today is bound to beat that figure and sends the documentary to a current running total that’s north of $5.4M.
Warners will open They Shall Not Grow Old in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, DC, on Jan. 11, with expansions to the top 25 markets on Feb. 1, Super Bowl weekend. The movie didn’t qualify for Oscar’s Best Documentary category this year as it missed the Oct. 1 filing deadline. This is a pure admirable passion play for Warner Bros. on behalf of their Lord of the Rings and Hobbit helmer Jackson.
Deadline exclusively reported Warner Bros.’ acquisition of the doc back in October. Jackson teamed with the Imperial War Museums several years ago and began production. It’s a topic that’s very close to his heart and his partner Fran Walsh: Jackson’s British grandfather fought in WWI, as did Walsh’s uncle.
They Shall Not Grow Old mixes previously unseen footage and audio recordings from the Imperial War Museums’ film archives with state-of-the-art technology that includes colorized and sharpened images converted to stereoscopic 3D. Jackson went through 100 hours of footage and 600 hours of BBC archive audio from British soldiers whose voices narrate the doc.
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