Hans Zimmer's The Next Level tour will play Australian arenas in October, Billboard reported, after completing 50 sold-out shows in 17 European countries and selling more than 600,000 tickets by April, a scale that makes the composer look less like a guest from cinema and more like a touring franchise. [1] The itinerary runs from Perth's RAC Arena to Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, with presales opening June 2 and general sales June 3. [1]

This is not a cute footnote to film culture, but the conversion of a soundtrack catalog into a touring product with a 19-piece band, vocalists, architectural staging and the language of spectacle, sold to audiences who know the cues before they know the set list and will pay arena prices to hear them outside the screen.

Billboard's frame is the business of routing; X's frame is recognizability, the pleasure of hearing Dune, Interstellar or The Lion King fill an arena and calling it fandom rather than repertory. [1] The gap matters because Hollywood's back catalog increasingly earns twice, first as screen memory and then as live event, with the composer standing where the movie star used to stand at scale [1].

-- CAMILLE BEAUMONT, Los Angeles