ABBA – The Movie will be returning to cinema screens in September 2023, in what is advertised as a “fan event“.
It is being promoted as a “worldwide” release, but judging by cinema listings that fans have found and posted over the past couple of days, it seems it might be limited to Western Europe and the UK (at least, so far). Universal Music Sweden has confirmed it won’t be screened in Australia at this time. *
UPDATE 16 AUGUST: it’s now being promoted as an “international” event rather than “worldwide”.
The event will include “exclusive extras”, which promise to be “an insight from the creators of the phenomenally successful London-based concert ABBA: Voyage, plus a glimpse at ABBA The Museum in Stockholm, lyric videos from hit songs, and extremely rare behind-the-scenes footage from the 1977 tour.”
It is likely that this won’t include anything that ardent ABBA fans haven’t seen before. The 1977 tour footage may be the silent rehearsal footage that surfaced at ABBAWORLD in Sydney in 2010, and also featured in part on the DVD of ABBA – The Movie in the bonus material. The lyric videos shown at the North American screenings last year were ‘Chiquitita‘, ‘Waterloo‘, and ‘Voulez-Vous’.
The event is promoted by UK-based Trafalgar Releasing, which promotes similar one-off cinema events. In May 2022 the same company promoted screenings of ABBA – The Movie in North America. Those screenings also featured a singalong with the lyric videos, but no other extras. At the time further screenings were promised, and finally they are here.
There are some curious things about this event. Film site a/perture reports that the version of the film was screened in North America last year was “remastered from IP and scanned at 2K resolution”. Presumably this year’s screenings are the same version. But several years ago, Universal mastered the film in 4K, and this has been screened in Europe, including at least twice at the annual International ABBA Day hosted by the Official International ABBA Fan Club in Roosendaal, The Netherlands.
The same report also tells us that “The remaster was completed at Motion Picture Imaging on the Warner Bros. studio lot.” Warner Bros. had international distribution of ABBA – The Movie in the 70s. Fans may remember in 2005 the company was preparing a DVD of the film, at the same time Universal Music was preparing theirs. The Warner version was cancelled, and Universal’s DVD was released in September that year. It’s interesting to note that the proposed Warner Bros. DVD cover and this revival cinema screening share the same artwork, and the poster advertising screenings in 2022 featured the WB logo in the bottom corner.
Tickets go on sale on 16 August. More details and sign up to receive updates at abbathemovie.com. If you’re lucky enough to live in one of the territories that is showing the film, do go and see it. It is definitely worth seeing on the big screen, and it will be fun to share with other ABBA fans. Already I hear of fans organising group outings.
* This many not be for the reasons you think. ABBA – The Movie has been screened in Australia as recently as 2017, when the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra hosted a screening and an ABBA event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of ABBA’s Australian tour in March. The same weekend the New Globe Theatre in Brisbane held a screening and fan event. It may just be an issue of distribution rights.
ABBA Omnibus blog 