Burn the Stage: A Global Success
Burn the Stage: The Movie follows BTS, or Bangtan Sonyeondan, behind the scenes of their 2017 Wings Tour. It gives a glimpse of the struggles backstage as well as exclusive interviews with the seven members. The film offers a new perspective on the amount of time and effort that the group puts into their performance. It has been no secret that the members of BTS work hard to ensure that their shows look and sound as perfect as possible. As much as I loved the group before, I respected them even more after seeing the clips of them doing their own stage checks, monitoring how different angles looked, and taking a hands-on approach to their setups rather than leaving it to staff and management to handle.
From a visual standpoint, the film was beautifully shot. There were a few scenes that made me a bit emotional such as seeing a couple of members become injured or when they were emotional themselves. My own experience was great. I enjoyed the movie and left the theater feeling like I had learned more about a group that I love listening to.
Despite the entire film being in Korean with subtitles for other languages, their behind the scenes movie ranked in the U.S. Top Ten list. Forbes Magazine compared BTS’ 1.4 million admissions favorably to the One Direction movie which had 1.2 million admissions. Almost one million of those tickets were presale from when the tickets first became available in October.
Burn the Stage: The Movie currently has a 9.1/10 star review on IMDB and 5/5 on Rotten Tomatoes. Fans filled over 2,000 theaters globally. According to Forbes, Burn the Stage earned $2.4 million in the U.S. during its weekend debut back in October 2018. The total North American revenue was $3.6 million. The film earned $14 million total globally.
The above-mentioned ratings are impressive on their own but even more so when compared to similar movies out this year about other artists. Lady Gaga’s A Star is Born currently has a rating of 8.2/10 on IMDB and Bohemian Rhapsody, which follows Freddy Mercury of the band Queen, has a rating of 8.4/10.
It was no surprise that fans wanted to celebrate the latest success of the group together. They took to Twitter to post photos of large groups in the theaters after the movie was over. The hashtag #BTSBurnTheStage is still filled with photos of excited fans hanging out with fellow ARMYs in celebration.
Not only was the movie a great opportunity to see the members of BTS spending time together, working hard behind the scenes, and a few glimpses of their performances, but it also gave ARMYs a chance to meet up and get to know each other while supporting the group that brought them together.
Fans who missed the movie shouldn’t despair though, with its wild success it is highly likely that BigHit will release the movie in some way. You can also still watch the longer documentary series by the same name on YouTube Red.
