Celebrate The King’s Birthday on January 8th With A Free Screening Of ELVIS Starring Austin Butler

By Michelle McCue | January 3, 2023

To mark Elvis Presley’s birthday on January 8, 2023, Warner Bros. Pictures is collaborating with Presley’s beloved estate, Graceland, to offer fans in Memphis and beyond the opportunity to celebrate the one-of-a-kind icon.

Leading up to and including the January 8 birthday, Graceland kicks off the celebration with a wide variety of festivities on the property:

• 1/5/23 – Elvis Movie Marathon and Club Elvis Hawaiian Style dinner, dancing, and “Blue Hawaii”
• 1/6/23 – Graceland Excursion to Tupelo; Archives Show & Tell; annual Elvis Birthday Pops Concert with Terry Mike Jeffrey and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra
• 1/7/23 – Conversations with Elvis with host Tom Brown, guests Hal Lansky, Glen Hardin and Alton Mason, who portrays Little Richard in the film; Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii 50^th Anniversary Concert
• 1/8/23 – Elvis Birthday Proclamation Ceremony, with free online viewing via Graceland’s Livestream page; Lisa Marie Presley, along with special guest Alton Mason, will join the ceremony taking place on the front lawn of the mansion at 8:30 a.m.
• 1/8/23 – The unveiling of “The Making of ELVIS” at Elvis Presley’s Memphis, a new exhibition celebrating the movie’s worldwide success, done in partnership with Warner Bros., National Film and Sound Archives of Australia and Baz Luhrmann, which explores the beginning of the film’s creative process through its journey to the big screen; Alton Mason will also be on site for the opening
• 1/9/23 – Beginning on the 9^th and running through the end of February, Graceland will offer new, limited-time ELVIS Movie Ultimate VIP (UVIP) Tours. Guests will enjoy a special tour experience of Elvis Presley’s Memphis and Graceland Mansion with a private tour guide that will feature insight into the extensive research done by Baz Luhrmann while at Graceland, along with the stories of the real-life artifacts replicated in the movie. Additional dates to be announced; for more information on ELVIS Movie UVIP Tours visit Graceland

Throughout the weekend, fans in town can experience Afternoon Graceland Christmas Tours and Evening UVIP Christmas Tours. Information on all events can be found at Graceland.com.

Also on January 8, fans in 10 cities across the U.S. and Canada will have the chance to see Baz Luhrmann’s celebrated film ELVIS in select theaters for free, courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures, with an introduction from Luhrmann and star Austin Butler.

Tickets will be available at no cost to moviegoers on a first come, first served basis here, for the following locations:

Atlanta, GA:				AMC Phipps Plaza
Chicago, IL:				AMC River East 21
Dallas, TX:				AMC NorthPark 15
Kansas City, KS:				AMC Town Center 20, Leawood
Los Angeles, CA:				AMC Burbank
New York, NY:				AMC Loews 34th Street
San Francisco, CA:				AMC Metreon
Toronto, ONT:				Cineplex’s Scotiabank Theatre Toronto
Vancouver, BC:				Cineplex Odeon International Village Cinemas

All above screenings will take place at 5:00 PM local time except Los Angeles, which begins at 4:00 PM PST.

Memphis, home to Presley’s beloved Graceland, will also host an afternoon screening at 2:00 p.m. in the estate’s Guest House Theater for fans in town for Elvis’s Birthday Celebration. Tickets will be available here.

Luhrmann said, “We are so appreciative of the audiences of all ages who came out to see the movie in theaters, and to Warner Bros. and exhibitors who took on what was certainly not a sure bet. A big thank you to audiences who made ELVIS the number one original title of 2022, and especially to Elvis’s fans—both old and new. The entire ELVIS team, along with Graceland and the Presleys themselves, have been listening to you all and working diligently to come up with these very special gifts in celebration of Elvis on his birthday.”

“No one was more appreciative of his fans than Elvis, as evidenced by the pilgrimage so many make to Graceland every year,” stated Joel Weinshanker, managing partner and majority owner, Elvis Presley Enterprises. “That’s why we are especially thrilled to partner with Warner Bros. on the occasion of Elvis Presley’s birthday, to add to our robust lineup for fans the gift of Baz Luhrmann’s incomparable film ELVIS—whether they are seeing it for the first time or, as we suspect, able to repeat the big screen experience they’ve undoubtedly been hoping for.”

In addition to the in-person activities, fans of the King and the film can also celebrate from their very own home:

• Watch ELVIS on HBO and HBO Max, currently available
• Next, discover “Just A Boy from Tupelo: Bringing Elvis to the Big Screen,” a 30-minute special on the phenomenon that was Elvis Presley and the making of Baz Luhrmann’s film, streaming exclusively beginning 1/8/23 on HBO Max
• SiriusXM to rebroadcast ELVIS Cast Town Hall on 1/6/23 through 1/8/23 with Baz Luhrmann, Austin Butler, Tom Hanks and Olivia DeJonge on Elvis Radio (ch. 75), moderated by SiriusXM host Jess Cagle
• RCA Records will drop the never-before-released full-length mash-up track from ELVIS: Britney Spears x Elvis Presley “Toxic Las Vegas: Jamieson Shaw Remix” on 1/6/23

Finally, can you move like Elvis? Beginning today and through the weekend celebrations, take the #ElvisBirthdayChallenge across TikTok and Instagram, where we are encouraging fans to recreate some of Presley’s iconic dance moves as replicated by Austin Butler in #ElvisMovie. Recreate your favorite movement moments from the movie, we’ll highlight some of the best entries on Sunday, 1/8/23!

Director-producer-cowriter Baz Luhrmann takes us on the moving journey of a rebel and an icon as America’s cultural landscape evolved over more than 30 years. Starring Austin Butler, ELVIS celebrates the extraordinary life of a trailblazing artist, the loves and poignant losses he faced as a man and the timeless music and groundbreaking performances he gave the world. The film explores how Presley’s unprecedented rise to fame was sparked by larger-than-life manager Colonel Tom Parker, portrayed by Oscar winner Tom Hanks, whose shortcomings were also primarily responsible for the singer’s tragic demise.

The film also stars award-winning theater actress Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, Olivia DeJonge, Luke Bracey, Natasha Bassett, David Wenham, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Xavier Samuel, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Dacre Montgomery and more. To play additional iconic musical artists in the film, Luhrmann cast singer/songwriter Yola as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, model Alton Mason as Little Richard, Austin, Texas native Gary Clark Jr. as Arthur Crudup, and artist Shonka Dukureh as Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton.

Oscar nominee Luhrmann directed from a screenplay by Baz Luhrmann & Sam Bromell and Baz Luhrmann & Craig Pearce and Jeremy Doner, story by Baz Luhrmann and Jeremy Doner. The film’s producers are Luhrmann, Oscar winner Catherine Martin, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick and Schuyler Weiss. Toby Emmerich, Courtenay Valenti and Kevin McCormick executive produced.

The director’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Mandy Walker, Oscar-winning production designer and costume designer Catherine Martin, production designer Karen Murphy, editors Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond, Oscar-nominated visual effects supervisor Thomas Wood, music supervisor Anton Monsted and composer/executive music producer Elliott Wheeler.

Principal photography on ELVIS took place in Queensland, Australia with the support of the Queensland Government, Screen Queensland and the Australian Government’s Producer Offset program.

A Warner Bros. Pictures Presentation, A Bazmark Production, A Jackal Group Production, A Baz Luhrmann Film, ELVIS is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.