Nearly five decades after his death, Elvis Presley has returned to the screen in one of the most acclaimed films of 2026. Variety has included Baz Luhrmann’s EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert among its best movies of the year so far, describing it as a thrilling concert experience built around beautifully restored footage of Elvis performing in Las Vegas during one of the most fascinating periods of his career.
The film follows Luhrmann’s successful 2022 biopic Elvis, but this time Austin Butler steps aside and the real Elvis takes center stage. Luhrmann and his team worked with footage connected to Elvis: That’s the Way It Is and Elvis on Tour, rare home movies from the Graceland archive and rediscovered recordings that allow Elvis to help tell his own story. The result is not a conventional biography. It is designed to place viewers inside the room with Elvis as the music, excitement and pressure of his live career unfold around him.
Watch the Official Trailer for EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert
The official trailer immediately explains why the film has connected so strongly with critics. Elvis is not presented as a distant historical figure or a carefully protected legend. He appears nervous behind the curtain, playful during rehearsals and completely transformed once he walks onto the stage. The restored images capture the sweat, movement and intensity of a performer who seemed able to control an entire room with a glance or the smallest change in his voice.
That energy powered one of the most extraordinary chapters in Las Vegas entertainment history. Beginning at the International Hotel in 1969, Elvis delivered 636 sold-out performances at the venue during his seven-year run. The engagements helped redefine what a major music residency could become. Yet the film looks beyond the glittering jumpsuits and familiar Vegas mythology. It focuses on the musician who could move between rock and roll, gospel, country and soul while making each performance feel immediate.
Watch Elvis Presley Perform Always on My Mind in Restored EPiC Footage
The exclusive “Always on My Mind” clip provides the perfect continuation after the trailer. That mixture of spectacle and vulnerability helped EPiC earn a 97 percent critics’ score and a 98 percent verified audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Its worldwide theatrical total reached approximately $23.5 million, a respectable result for a music documentary but modest compared with the enormous recognition the Elvis name still commands. Variety’s decision to place it among the year’s best films has now renewed attention around a movie that many general viewers may have missed during its original theatrical run.
The most important achievement belongs to Elvis. He recorded songs that crossed generations, completed 636 sold-out performances in Las Vegas and helped establish the modern image of the superstar concert performer. EPiC reminds viewers that behind every photograph, jumpsuit and headline stood a musician capable of making thousands of people feel as though he were singing directly to them. Nearly 50 years after Elvis Presley left the stage, he is still commanding the screen, winning over critics and showing a new generation exactly why the world called him the King.