Marlon Brando in THE GODFATHER 50th Anniversary Re-Release Opens in the St. Louis Area Today at Three AMC Theaters

“Listen, whoever comes to you with this Barzini meeting, he’s the traitor. Don’t forget that.”

In celebration of The Godfather’s 50^th anniversary, Paramount will re-release the Francis Ford Coppola classic in limited AMC Theatres locations in Dolby Vision starting today March 18 at 3 AMC theaters In the St. Louis area: AMC Creve Coeur 12, AMC Edwardsville 12, and AMC CLASSIC Eastgate 6 in Alton

In advance of the 50th anniversary of the first film’s original release on March 24, 1972, Paramount and Coppola’s production company, American Zoetrope, restored all three Godfather films over the course of three years. The entire trilogy will be made available in 4K Ultra HD for the first time on March 22, 2022.

During the restoration process, which was overseen by Coppola, over 300 cartons of film were scrutinized to find the best possible resolution for each frame of all three movies. More than 4,000 hours were spent repairing film stains, tears and other anomalies in the negatives, while over 1,000 hours were spent on color correction to restore the films to Coppola and cinematographer Gordon Willis’ original vision. In addition to the 5.1 audio that was approved by the film’s sound designer, Walter Murch, during a 2007 restoration project, the original mono tracks of The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II have also been restored.

“I am very proud of The Godfather, which certainly defined the first third of my creative life,” said Coppola in a statement, adding that Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone – the director’s new edit of the third film – is included in the restoration. He continued of Coda, “It captures Mario and my original vision in definitively concluding our epic trilogy.”

“We felt privileged to restore these films and a little in awe every day we worked on them,” said Andrea Kalas, senior vice president, Paramount Archives. “We were able to witness first-hand how the brilliant cinematography, score, production design, costume design, editing, performances, and, of course, screenwriting and direction became famously more than the sum of their parts. It was our commitment to honor all of the filmmakers’ exceptional work.”