The 5 best concert movies of 2023

polygon.com:

Have you heard? 2023 was the year concert films saved cinema — or at least boosted movie theaters. Normally, it would be difficult to wrangle up enough notable entries to warrant an end-of-year concert movie ranking, but not this year. This year, the concert film ruled. Taylor Swift and Beyoncé sidestepped Hollywood to work directly with theaters for the distributions of their respective box-office champions. Culture-shifting global superstars BTS managed to make waves in theaters, despite being on group hiatus for all of 2023. And Hollywood indie darling A24 re-released 1984’s Stop Making Sense, widely considered to be one of the best concert films of all time.

Like any ranking, it’s important to come up with a criteria. This one is based not on the quality of the performance recorded, but rather the unique merits of the concert movie as, well, a movie. Frankly, there aren’t any bad movies on this list — it really was a good year for concert-focused filmmaking — but there were some examples that were more cinematically ambitious than others. In a year of concert films, let’s talk about which movies did something particularly unique with the format.

Where to watch: Prime Video

It pains me to put my beloved BTS so low on this list, but remember, all five of these concert movies are Quite Good. As a card-carrying member of BTS ARMY, BTS: Yet to Come — a filmed version of the K-pop sensation’s final performance before the group went on hiatus for mandatory military service —was the concert film I personally had the most fun watching in 2023. However,helmed by experienced K-pop concert film director Oh Yoon-dong, BTS: Yet to Come isn’t doing anything special beyond point-and-shoot in the translation to film. Still, its