It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, Amy Berg’s Oscar-contending documentary about the late musician and singer, has become something of a box office phenomenon even before it opens theatrically abroad.
The film distributed by Magnolia Pictures in the U.S. has earned nearly $1.5 million so far, virtual all of it at domestic theaters.
“I think this film kind of defied what the industry thought it would do,” Berg tells Deadline. “But for us, we felt there was an audience there and we had this really interesting and very connective way to reach the audience.”
The film has found a strong base of support with people born after Buckley’s untimely death in 1997 at the age of 30.
“The Gen Z audience… they left their house multiple times to go see this movie,” Berg says. “I think it was just because the film has a very authentic take. It’s not something that’s commissioned by the estate. I had final cut, and it’s just a really uncensored look at an artist that I think really needed to have his due.”
Berg adds, “We had so many TikTok repurposed videos of people that went over and saw the film multiple times, showing their tickets. People were documenting their experience, going to see the film, how they felt before, how they felt after, what it means to them. And it just kind of had this really positive effect on Jeff’s legacy.”
Magnolia Pictures
A striking mini poster – made available in lobby card size to moviegoers for free at many screenings – helped get the word spreading. So did a strategy that saw early theatrical showings feature a bonus mini concert by Buckley, whose musicianship and extraordinary vocal talent made him one of the most unique artists of his time.
“We restored 26 minutes of live footage from an intimate club show that Jeff played in 1994 right before [the album] Grace was released,” producer Ryan Heller notes. “We worked closely with our partners at Magnolia… [including] that at the end of the film after the credits as a kind of bonus. And that was something we cleared only for theatrical use. And for us, it is a little bit about helping to create some urgency that I think is always the thing that in the theatrical marketplace you’re looking for, like, ‘Why do I need to go now?’ That was something that felt, well, it’s an ephemeral experience that was only going to last for a couple of weeks in theaters. And I think that had a true effect on the box office.”
Jeff Buckley on guitar in 1993.
Photo by Merri Cyr/ Courtesy: Everett Collection
Among Gen Z fans of the film is Sombr, the 20-year-old singer-songwriter who with his flowing locks and chiseled looks could pass for the reincarnation of Buckley.
“We heard two days ago, Sombr, this is his favorite movie of the year,” Berg shares. “Sombr, who’s the biggest kind of Gen Z thing.”
The filmmaker has several theories for the resonance of the film for multiple generations.
“[Buckley] was woke way before woke was a thing, and he was a feminist when it wasn’t cool to be a feminist,” Berg observes. “One of the podcasters [with whom we did an interview] said there’s a universal language called Jeff Buckley, and I think that that is very true. People have their own personal relationships with him that were only on their phones, I guess, up to this point, especially the young kids who had never seen him live. And so being in the room with other kids, there was just this kind of communal thing that was happening and it was beautiful.”
Musician Tim Buckley, Jeff Buckley’s father.
Magnolia Pictures
As the film explores, Buckley grew up in the shadow of his father, Tim Buckley, a singer-songwriter of some renown who died at age 28 of a drug overdose. The elder Buckley was never a part of his son’s life and Jeff Buckley chafed at any comparisons between them. But one striking fact couldn’t be ignored – both Buckleys possessed voices of exceptional range. Jeff Buckley initially focused all his energy on guitar, becoming an acclaimed instrumentalist. But when he finally felt comfortable lending his own voice to his compositions, he stunned people with his multi-octave capabilities.
“His voice just magically gets into your soul,” Berg told us at the Sundance Film Festival, where her documentary premiered. Musician Ben Harper, a friend of Buckley’s, appears in the documentary and he also spoke with Deadline at Sundance about his late compadre.
“You just hadn’t heard anything like [his voice] until he came along,” Harper remarked. “It was as singular an instrument as has existed in the world of sound… It was equally vulnerable and fragile. And to have those two counterpoints all within the same instrument was just something unheard of… To be that raw, but that elegant at the same time, and to be that powerful yet that fragile at the same time was just shocking.”
Jeff Buckley with his mom, Mary Guibert.
Magnolia Pictures
Mary Guibert, Jeff Buckley’s mom, serves as an executive producer on the film (as Berg mentioned above, the filmmaker retained final cut on the project). Berg first approach Guibert years ago about the potential documentary.
“Since 2008, I have been trying to get access to this story,” Berg said at Sundance. “And I finally met up with Mary in 2010, but she didn’t give me the rights for another nine years. But every time I finished a film, I would reach out to Mary. She did share the archive with me back then, and I was blown away by the voicemail messages and the DAT recordings and his candor, and I just kept at it.”
(L-R) Director Amy Berg and Mary Guibert attend the ‘It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley’ premiere at Sundance on January 24, 2025 in Park City, Utah.
Neilson Barnard/Getty Images
It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley just began streaming on HBO Max. And it’s impressive box office totals are about to be swelled by theatrical distribution around the world.
“Universal is so excited about the theatrical, they have 20 countries committed right now starting with Denmark, France, England, Italy, there are some South American countries,” Berg says. Another sign of the film’s impact – downloads of Buckley’s music. On Spotify, the singer’s tune “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over” has recorded 400 million streams.
“There’s so much politics and so much negativity in the world right at this moment,” Berg observes, “and I think this film speaks to something that we all need, which is kindness and love and art and escapism.”