Every single frame was sweated over': how Becoming Led Zeppelin became the biggest documentary of the year

"Becoming Led Zeppelin, a film about the British band that dominated the music industry in the 1970s, was the most successful feature documentary at the US box office in 2025, taking over $10m. (Taylor Swift's The Official Release Party of a Showgirl grossed considerably more, with $34m, but as an album-promoting clipshow it is evidently in a different category.) Despite breaking up in 1980 after the death"

"The film's director, Bernard MacMahon, says that its success is down to more than simply the right band at the right time. It's a story about how four boys that come from nowhere with no access can get to a position where they can communicate with the world through really, really, really hard work. MacMahon says he interviewed more than 170 people associated with Led Zeppelin for research purposes though only the surviving members, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Robert Plant, speak on screen."

Becoming Led Zeppelin became the most successful feature documentary at the US box office in 2025, taking over $10m. Taylor Swift's The Official Release Party of a Showgirl grossed $34m but is categorized differently. Led Zeppelin broke up in 1980 after drummer John Bonham's death and remain one of the world's bestselling acts with estimated sales over 200m records and 14.9bn streams. The film focuses on the band's early years up to the 1969 release of Led Zeppelin II. Imax screenings produced the format's best opening weekend and the highest-grossing documentary of 2025. Director Bernard MacMahon conducted extensive interviews and used archival audio, including Bonham, to elicit emotional responses from the surviving members.

Read at www.theguardian.com