Holy hell! ‘The Devils’ is a box office hit 55 years later

Ken Russell’s long-banned 1971 shocker The Devils just posted the kind of opening weekend most new releases would envy, proving that a 55-year-old NC-17 restoration can still set limited-release records when the timing and the material line up. Warner Bros. Clockwork booked the 4K director’s cut into roughly 350 theaters for a single week and watched it clear $1.7 million, a per-screen average near five thousand dollars that prompted an immediate extension. Audiences turned out for the uncut version of a film once condemned by the Vatican and hacked to pieces by censors, and the numbers show they are willing to pay for the full, unfiltered experience.

Restoration finally arrives

The version now playing is the first public release of Russell’s intended cut. Missing footage, including the notorious “Rape of Christ” sequence, was reassembled from original elements that surfaced in 2004 and waited two decades for a proper 4K scan. Cannes Classics premiered the restoration in May 2026, giving programmers and critics their first look at the complete work.

Warner Bros. Clockwork, the new specialty label named after another 1971 Warner title, handled the U.S. release. The company positioned the run as a limited Halloween-season event, betting that younger viewers scrolling through social media would respond to the film’s themes of institutional abuse and religious hysteria.

Mark Kermode, who helped locate the missing reels, called the timing uncanny. He noted that a story about political operatives weaponizing hysteria against a defiant priest plays like it was written for the present moment, not the early seventies.

Original release and censorship

In 1971 the film opened to X ratings in Britain and heavy cuts in the United States. Local councils banned it outright in parts of the UK, while Italy and Ireland followed suit. The Vatican issued a formal condemnation, ensuring the picture became a symbol of what authorities feared most on screen.

Surviving prints circulated for years in truncated form. Bootlegs and occasional festival screenings kept the legend alive, but the complete cut remained unavailable. Criterion Channel offered a partial version in recent years, yet nothing replaced the missing sequences until the new restoration.

Oliver Reed’s charismatic priest and Vanessa Redgrave’s repressed, manipulative Sister Jeanne survived the cuts, but the full force of Russell’s critique did not. Viewers who only knew the compromised edition are now seeing the picture Russell fought to protect.

Box office performance

The opening weekend delivered $1.725 million from 350 screens. That figure translates to roughly $4,925 per screen, numbers that rival some prestige platform releases with far larger marketing budgets. Sold-out shows in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago convinced exhibitors to add dates.

Warner Bros. Clockwork extended the run by a second week, then added a handful of markets that had not originally been part of the plan. International rollout followed quickly, with BFI handling the UK and Ireland starting October 30 and additional territories booked through November.

The trailer, posted in August, has drawn more than 21 million views. Much of that traffic came from short clips of the restored footage shared on TikTok and Instagram, where younger viewers framed the film as both horror and political commentary.

Why the timing works

October bookings placed The Devils in theaters during peak spooky-season traffic. Horror fans arrived expecting period shocks and found a film that also functions as a study of power consolidation and scapegoating.

Current headlines about religious institutions, political operatives, and moral panics gave the 1971 material an unintended currency. Reviewers noted that audiences laughed at certain lines, then grew quiet when the same dynamics echoed recent events.

NC-17 labeling added an extra layer of event appeal. The rating functions less as a deterrent and more as proof that the restoration delivers what earlier versions withheld.

Audience demographics shift

Traditional cult-film crowds filled early screenings, yet exit polls showed a sizable under-35 contingent. Many had encountered the film through online essays or podcast discussions rather than repertory houses.

Social-media conversation centered on two elements: the restored visual extremity and the film’s blunt portrayal of church-state collusion. Viewers who arrived for the former often stayed to debate the latter.

Older patrons who remembered the original controversy returned to measure the difference between memory and the uncut print. Several reported that the added footage altered their understanding of Sister Jeanne’s arc and the political machinery surrounding Grandier.

Marketing and word of mouth

Warner Bros. Clockwork kept the campaign lean, relying on the restoration’s reputation and the trailer’s viral reach. Posters leaned into the film’s stark black-and-white iconography rather than explicit imagery, letting the NC-17 rating do the heavy lifting.

Word of mouth moved through film-Twitter threads and horror podcasts that framed the picture as both historical document and present-day warning. That positioning helped convert curiosity into repeat viewings.

Local exhibitors reported strong walk-up sales from patrons who had not purchased tickets in advance, a rarity for limited re-releases. Several theaters added late shows to accommodate demand.

Comparisons to other restorations

Few catalog titles from the same era have matched these per-screen averages on first release. Restorations of once-controversial films often play to niche crowds; The Devils cleared wider multiplex screens and held them.

The closest recent parallel is the 2019 4K re-release of A Clockwork Orange, another 1971 Warner title that drew strong limited business. Clockwork’s debut project deliberately echoes that precedent, pairing the two films in marketing materials.

Unlike many restorations that fade after opening weekend, The Devils maintained numbers into its second week, prompting some bookers to request extensions beyond the initial plan.

Home video prospects

Physical media plans are already in motion. A two-disc 4K/Blu-ray edition is slated for early 2027, featuring the restored cut alongside surviving censored materials and a commentary track from Kermode.

Streaming rights remain under negotiation, though the theatrical success strengthens the film’s leverage. Services that previously hosted truncated versions are expected to bid for the complete cut once the limited run concludes.

Ancillary revenue from the re-release could eventually surpass the original 1971 domestic gross, adjusted for inflation, simply because the full version was never widely available until now.

What the numbers signal

The Devils has shown that a meticulously restored, once-unseeable film can command theatrical attention when its themes intersect with current anxieties. The success also validates Warner Bros. Clockwork’s decision to launch with a title that tests audience appetite for unfiltered catalog cinema.

Exhibitors watching the per-screen averages are already asking about other long-suppressed titles that might follow the same path. The lesson is straightforward: if the material holds up and the restoration is definitive, viewers will show up.