Holy hell! ‘The Devils’ is a box office hit 55 years later
The Devils returns to theaters in its long-suppressed director’s cut and is posting the kind of limited-release numbers that usually belong to new studio franchises. Warner Bros. has extended the run indefinitely after a $1.725 million opening weekend from roughly 350 screens, with per-screen averages that rival current prestige titles. The 4K restoration premiered at Cannes Classics and is the studio’s first NC-17 release in its history. Audiences are turning out for a film that was once banned, cut, and condemned by the Vatican.
Restoration timeline
The 2026 version marks the first time Ken Russell’s intended cut has reached the public. Material excised for the original X rating, including the notorious “Rape of Christ” sequence, has been restored from the original camera negative. Mark Kermode, who championed the project for years, oversaw the final assembly. The print screened to sold-out houses during its festival debut and immediately secured domestic bookings.
Warner Bros. had passed on the film in 1971 after United Artists declined over concerns about graphic content. The studio now finds itself distributing the same picture uncut and unrated in any previous sense. The decision reflects shifting exhibition standards and the commercial viability of event restorations aimed at adult audiences.
Physical elements survived in better shape than expected, allowing 4K scanning without heavy digital repair. Color timing follows Russell’s original notes rather than later broadcast-safe versions. The result preserves Derek Jarman’s stark production design and Peter Maxwell Davies’s score without the compromises imposed decades ago.
Box office performance
Domestic grosses have reached $3.49 million and continue climbing after multiple theater chains added shows. The per-screen average on opening weekend placed the film ahead of several new wide releases. International rollout begins next month in the UK and Ireland under BFI auspices, with additional European dates already confirmed.
Marketing stayed minimal. Warner relied on organic trailer views that reached several million within days of the first Cannes clip. Social media posts from repertory houses showed lines around the block in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Word-of-mouth has extended runs at venues that initially booked only one week.
Older catalog titles rarely sustain such numbers without awards positioning or nostalgia cycles. The Devils benefits from timing that coincides with renewed interest in stories of institutional abuse and religious hysteria. Halloween-season bookings have further boosted attendance at specialty theaters already programming horror-adjacent double features.
Historical basis
The film dramatizes events in 17th-century Loudun, France, where priest Urbain Grandier was accused of witchcraft after opposing Cardinal Richelieu’s centralization efforts. Sister Jeanne, portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave, becomes the catalyst for mass hysteria among the nuns. Oliver Reed plays Grandier as a figure caught between personal appetites and political maneuvering.
Russell drew from Aldous Huxley’s nonfiction account and John Whiting’s stage adaptation. He has described the project as his most explicitly political film, centered on state and church collusion rather than supernatural horror. The restored version makes that framing unmistakable by returning excised passages that underscore manipulation and crowd psychology.
Original release prints carried heavy cuts that softened the critique. The 2026 cut restores sequences that show how accusations were manufactured to serve Richelieu’s power grab. Contemporary viewers have noted parallels to modern debates over institutional authority and manufactured moral panics.
Censorship history
The Devils received an X rating in both the US and UK upon release. Further cuts were demanded for television and home video. Some territories banned the film outright. The Vatican issued a formal condemnation. Russell maintained that these interventions distorted the film’s argument about brainwashing and authoritarian control.
Bootleg versions circulated for years among collectors, often sourced from censored prints. Academic screenings occasionally presented reconstructed approximations, but none matched the director’s blueprint. The new restoration eliminates decades of accumulated interference.
Warner’s decision to release the film NC-17 rather than seek a more commercial rating signals confidence in the audience for uncompromised work. The classification itself has become part of the marketing narrative, drawing viewers curious about material once deemed too extreme for any rating at all.
Modern resonance
Critics and audiences have drawn direct lines between the film’s depiction of religious and political hysteria and current conversations about institutional power. Kermode noted that the picture “is playing like it was made for right now.” Social media threads have amplified this reading, with clips of crowd scenes circulating alongside commentary on contemporary moral panics.
The restoration arrives amid heightened scrutiny of how institutions handle accusations of abuse and dissent. Scenes of orchestrated testimony and forced confessions land differently than they did in 1971. Younger viewers encountering the film for the first time report surprise at how little the underlying dynamics have shifted.
Double features pairing The Devils with The Exorcist have appeared on several repertory calendars, underscoring shared themes of possession and authority. The comparison highlights Russell’s secular approach versus more supernatural treatments of similar material.
Key creative team
Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave anchor the cast with performances that retain their charge. Reed’s Grandier balances charisma and recklessness, while Redgrave’s Sister Jeanne channels obsession into political violence. Supporting players include Dudley Sutton and Gemma Jones in roles that have gained retrospective notice.
Derek Jarman’s production design remains one of the film’s most cited elements. Stark whites and clinical sets create a world that feels both historical and abstract. The look has influenced subsequent period productions that favor stylization over strict realism.
Peter Maxwell Davies’s score blends modernist dissonance with liturgical motifs. The music was trimmed in earlier releases; the restoration returns several passages that heighten the sense of institutional ritual turning coercive. Live orchestral accompaniment has been discussed for select future screenings.
Industry implications
The commercial performance challenges assumptions about the limited appeal of restored catalog titles. Distributors are watching whether similar long-suppressed films can follow the same path. Several estates and archives have already approached Warner about comparable projects.
Exhibitors report that the film’s NC-17 rating has not deterred attendance at the specialty houses that booked it. Some locations added late-night screenings to accommodate demand from younger viewers drawn by social media clips. The pattern suggests a viable lane for adult-oriented restorations outside awards season.
Streaming rights remain under discussion. Warner has not confirmed a home-video window, though festival programmers expect the 4K DCP to circulate for years. The extended theatrical run may delay ancillary releases while the film continues to perform.
Cultural conversation
Podcasts and film Twitter have treated the release as a live case study in changing exhibition standards. Threads comparing original and restored versions have circulated frame grabs that illustrate the extent of prior cuts. Academic panels scheduled for the coming months will examine the film’s production history alongside its renewed relevance.
Merchandise has stayed minimal, limited mostly to posters at the venues themselves. The absence of heavy branding has preserved an event-like atmosphere rather than a nostalgia product cycle. Audiences appear content to treat the screenings as a shared discovery rather than a branded revival.
International programmers have requested materials for potential retrospectives timed to the UK and European rollouts. The BFI retrospective already planned around the restoration will expand if demand holds through the holidays.
Future prospects
The Devils has demonstrated that a 55-year-old film can generate first-run excitement when the circumstances align. Further extensions remain possible if international numbers track with domestic results. The restoration’s long-term value will depend on continued theatrical interest and eventual archival placement.
Whether the success prompts broader investment in suppressed catalog titles is the question now facing distributors. The Devils succeeded without awards positioning or major star campaigns, relying instead on the integrity of the restored version and word-of-mouth momentum. That model may prove replicable for other politically charged or formally daring films kept from audiences for decades.
