Ozzy & Black Sabbath's Back to the Beginning Reaches Japanese Cinemas — 58 Screens on November 7, Forty-Five Years to the Day After Diary of a Madman

Three dates: October 28, October 31, November 7

The run opens on Wednesday, October 28 with the Japan premiere at two theatres — Shinjuku Wald 9 in Tokyo and T-Joy Umeda in Osaka — starting at 19:00. Three days later, on Saturday, October 31, four theatres host one-night Halloween screenings: Shinjuku Wald 9, Yokohama Burg 13, Midland Square Cinema in Nagoya and T-Joy Umeda, this time starting at 18:00.

The national release follows on Saturday, November 7 across 58 screens. Some of those theatres will run screenings where standing and headbanging are allowed; the announcement says plainly that these are not suited to anyone who wants to watch quietly, so the format is worth checking before picking a cinema.

T-Joy Prince Shinagawa will also host an on-stage event with a special guest on November 7. That theatre starts at 17:30, and the guest and the timing are still to be announced — the appearance will come either before or after the film itself.

Reserved seating, with the price set by the sound format

Every seat is reserved, and the price depends on the sound format. A 5.1ch screening costs 3,600 yen in advance and 4,600 yen for tickets sold at the cinema; a Dolby Atmos screening costs 3,900 yen in advance and 4,900 yen at the cinema, tax included. The cinema-counter tickets go on sale after the general release through the ticket agencies.

Dolby Atmos auditoriums hold a limited number of seats, so oversubscribed screenings will be allocated by lottery — and the announcement warns that a screening billed as Atmos may end up running in 5.1ch depending on circumstances.

The presale windows differ per date. For the November 7 national release, the eplus presale runs from 18:00 on September 29 to 18:00 on October 11. For the October 31 Halloween screenings, a Creative Man members' presale runs from 18:00 on October 1 to 18:00 on October 4, followed by an eplus presale from 18:00 on October 4 to 18:00 on October 11. Tickets for the October 28 premiere are on presale until 18:00 on October 4.

The film is a 2026 British production presented on DCP at 1.85:1, in 5.1ch or Dolby Atmos, 4K and 2D, with Japanese subtitles, running approximately 148 minutes. Some theatres will screen it in 2K.

A nine-hour, 68-song night compressed into 148 minutes

The concert behind the film took place at Aston Villa Park in Birmingham on July 5, 2025. Forty-five thousand people were in the ground, roughly 5.8 million more watched the worldwide pay-per-view stream, and the bill ran to 68 songs across about nine hours. At roughly 148 minutes, the film condenses that night to about a quarter of its length.

It was the day Black Sabbath's complete original line-up — Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne — stood together for the first time in twenty years. Osbourne also played a solo set, his first in eight years after a long absence on health grounds. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine served as the show's musical director.

The bill included Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Slayer, Tool, Pantera, Alice in Chains, Anthrax, Gojira, Halestorm, Lamb of God, Mastodon, Rival Sons, Yungblud and Papa of Ghost, alongside all-star segments assembled for the night.

Seventeen days later, on July 22, 2025, Ozzy Osbourne died at the age of 76. The show stands as his last, both as Black Sabbath's singer and as a solo frontman.

Why November 7 — forty-five years after Diary of a Madman

The date of the national release is not an accident. This site's own discography gives November 7, 1981 as the release date of Diary of a Madman, Ozzy Osbourne's second solo album — which makes the same date in 2026 its forty-fifth anniversary exactly, and gives the screening its billing.

The tour behind that album also began Osbourne's long relationship with Japan. According to the announcement, his first Japanese dates came on the 1982 Diary of a Madman Tour; he returned ten more times as a solo artist and once with Black Sabbath, eleven visits in all. Screening the film nationwide on the album's anniversary puts it forty-four years after that first arrival.

Three records standing either side of the screening

This was not Black Sabbath's first farewell in Birmingham. The End (4 February 2017 - Birmingham), in this site's discography, documents the band's final show in the same city on February 4, 2017; a Japanese SHM-CD edition was reissued on February 20, 2026. Twice now the band has chosen to finish at home.

The screenings also fall either side of Tony Iommi's own release. From the Dark, his first solo album since Fused in 2005, arrives on October 23, 2026, five days before the Japan premiere, and the Japanese edition — a paper-sleeve SHM-CD — follows on November 6, the day before the national screening.

Villa Park, where Back to the Beginning was staged, has also been announced as the home of Ozzfest's return in 2027. What the film closes is a chapter, and Birmingham's story is not finished with it.