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Iron Maiden's Official Documentary Burning Ambition Opens In Japan On December 4 For A Two-Week Run

· METAL BOOST Editorial

Iron Maiden's official documentary, Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition, opens across Japan on Friday December 4 and runs to Thursday December 17 — two weeks only. The feature was made with unprecedented access to the band's own archive and reached cinemas worldwide on May 7. Its Japanese run begins days after the band close their 50th-anniversary tour with two nights at K Arena Yokohama on November 24 and 25.

Directed by Malcolm Venville, produced by Dominic Freeman

Universal Pictures International announced the final title, the key art and the international theatrical plan on February 24, 2026. Malcolm Venville, whose credits include Churchill at War, directs; Dominic Freeman, producer of Depeche Mode's Spirits in the Forest, produces. The worldwide release was set for May 7, with tickets going on sale from March 18.

The key art is the work of Albert "Akirant" Quirantes, the artist behind Eddie. The Japanese announcement put that poster visual out again alongside stills from the film.

By the band's own figures, Iron Maiden formed in East London in 1975 and have since released seventeen studio albums, sold more than 100 million records and played close to 2,500 concerts across 64 countries. The documentary compresses that half-century into a single feature.

Javier Bardem, Lars Ulrich and Chuck D among those interviewed

Alongside the band, past and present, the film carries on-camera reflections from the actor Javier Bardem, Metallica's Lars Ulrich and Public Enemy's Chuck D, each on what Iron Maiden has meant to music, to culture and to successive generations of listeners. The Japanese announcement also names Anthrax's Scott Ian. Unreleased material pulled from the official archive and historic concert footage sit alongside brand-new animated sequences of the band's mascot, Eddie.

The world premiere took place on May 5 at Cineworld Leicester Square in London. Speaking shortly before release, Bruce Dickinson described a deliberate decision to stay out of the edit: the story needed an outside eye, and that meant not interfering while it was being told.

Japan gets it days after the tour ends: December 4 to 17

The Japanese run is limited to two weeks, from Friday December 4 to Thursday December 17, in cinemas nationwide.

Some ten days earlier, on Tuesday November 24 and Wednesday November 25, the band play K Arena Yokohama. Those two nights are the final dates of the Run For Your Lives world tour, the two-year run staged for the band's fiftieth anniversary; doors at 17:30, on stage at 19:00. The film therefore opens in Japan immediately after the tour has ended there.

Sources