‘Fight Club’ Returns to Theaters for One-Night Only Screening

If you missed Fight Club — David Fincher‘s blood-soaked film about identity, late 20th century America, and whether you can achieve philosophical freedom by getting punched in the face — when it originally hit theaters in 1999, or just want to see it again on the big screen, get ready to be Jack’s sense of excited anticipation: the film will hit theater in 4k screenings for one night, on April 22, in advance of its release on 4K Ultra HD Steelbook® and 4K Digital on May 12.

In addition, a Fight Club 25th Anniversary art book will be released by New Regency and Insight Editions, filled with interviews and behind-the-scenes photos.

Now considered one of the biggest cult classics of the “Y2K” era, Fight Club originally was viewed as an underperforming film by 20th Century Fox executives, who had expected audiences to flock to see superstars Brad Pitt; the movie was considered controversial and gratuitously violent by many movie reviewers, with legendary film critic Roger Ebert giving the film only two out of four stars. London Evening Standard reviewer Alexander Walker declared of the film, “It is an inadmissable assault on personal decency. And on society itself” — a quote that was later used in the film’s DVD marketing.

Rosie O’Donnell famously spoiled the film’s twist ending on her morning TV show soon after its release; years later, in a 2021 interview on Sirius XM, she revealed that she spoiled the film because “I was saying The Sixth Sense makes sense, but this one doesn’t make sense because of the thing at the end.”

Once released on video, the film picked up steam, especially with viewers in their teens and twenties. The film joined the college cult film cannon — although in the years following its release, a number of young men around the US found themselves in legal trouble after starting their own “fight clubs,” and engaging in activities that included fighting non-members and planting bombs, in emulation of the film’s “Project Mayhem” group.

In a 2023 interview with The Guardian, director Fincher expressed shock that many viewers looked up to the film’s anti-hero, Tyler Durden (Pitt), and that the film had been embraced by real-world groups that embraced violence and looked down on women’s rights: “It’s impossible for me to imagine that people don’t understand that Tyler Durden is a negative influence. People who can’t understand that, I don’t know how to respond and I don’t know how to help them.”

Check local cinema listings to find out where Fight Club will be screening in your area.