Elvis is again a TV and movie star: New movie tops box office as streaming channel debuts

Elvis is everywhere — if you can find him.

The assignment isn't a challenge for those searching movie theaters.

Director Baz Luhrmann's epic movie biography "Elvis" — which opened Friday on 3,906 cinema screens in North America — exceeded expectations and emerged as the weekend's No. 1 film, topping "Top Gun: Maverick" in a photo-finish finale that box-office bean-counters didn't call until Monday afternoon.

Monday also marked the launch of the free but ad-supported Elvis Presley Channel — but finding the Elvis channel on your television might be a little tougher than finding the King in the nearest theater.

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The Elvis Presley Channel is a streaming platform operated by the entertainment company Cinedigm, in partnership with Elvis Presley Enterprises and Authentic Brands Group, which owns the licensing and merchandising rights to Elvis' name and likeness. (Authentic Brands also controls "brand" rights to such celebrities as Marilyn Monroe and Muhammad Ali.)

According to Variety, the channel is available "on platforms in the U.S. representing 100 million-plus devices, offering a continuous, linear free stream of Elvis concerts, documentaries, specials and movies as well as other lifestyle and entertainment programming."

These platforms include LG Channels, Amazon Freevee (formerly IMDb TV), Vizio’s WatchFree+, Comcast’s Xumo, Plex, Allen Media Group’s Local Now and Dish Network’s Sling TV. That's a lot, but it leaves out what Variety calls "three of the most popular free-streaming services: the Roku Channel, Paramount’s Pluto TV and Tubi."

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Meanwhile, the neck-and-neck box-office returns posted this weekend by "Elvis" and the "Top Gun" sequel apparently ended slightly in Presley's favor, according to the Exhibitor Relations Co., which tracks movie ticket sales.

"After a rare tie...," the company stated on Twitter, "ELVIS has officially charted #1 at the box office, narrowly fending off the #1 movie of the summer, TOP GUN MAVERICK."

According to tallies supplied by Warner Bros. ("Elvis") and Paramount ("Top Gun"), "Elvis" earned $31.1 million in North America, while "Top Gun," in its fifth weekend, collected $29.6 million.

Skewing toward an older audience, "Elvis" exceeded the expectations of most box-office prognosticators, who expected the movie to earn about $25 million to $28 million. In any event, the audience embrace of the Tom Cruise/Tom Hanks tandem (Hanks plays "Colonel" Tom Parker in "Elvis" as a sort of combination of Mephistopheles and Porky Pig) was terrific news for theater owners, who also pulled in moviegoers with "Jurassic World: Dominion" and an overachieving horror movie, "The Black Phone." Sandwiched between two "Star Wars" films, "Top Gun: Maverick" now ranks at No. 15 on the all-time box-office chart for the U.S. and Canada.

As a shout-out of thanks to motion-picture exhibitors and Memphis' Malco Theatres Inc. specifically, "Elvis" star Austin Butler taped a brief promotional piece for Malco that is on the company's Twitter and other social media sites. "Did you know that Elvis once worked at a Malco theater back in 1952?" Butler says. "I hope you buy your tickets and see this movie how it was meant to be seen, on the biggest screen possible, at a Malco theater near you."

Incidentally, the phrase in the first sentence of this story alludes to "Elvis Is Everywhere," a novelty hit recorded in 1987 by Mojo Nixon. The lyrics suggested that "Elvis is everywhere, Elvis is everything, Elvis everybody," and provided this solution to the Bermuda Triangle mystery: "Elvis needs boats."

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Elvis Presley Channel launches as 'Elvis' movie wins at the box office