Jay-Z and Beyoncé have been on the run for quite some time, after putting together a collaborative stadium tour that cracked over $100 million dollars across its first 19 dates, has continued for months, and will soon be hitting Europe. If you didn’t have the massive cash flow necessary to land a seat at one of the power couples’ big tour dates, HBO has big plans to broadcast the concert, calling the footage the On The Run Tour: Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
If you have followed any of the advertising for the On The Run tour, Jay-Z and Beyoncé have employed all sorts of criminal looks harkening back to their 2003 single “03 Bonnie & Clyde.” The trailer for On The Run is pretty similar, featuring black and white footage of Beyoncé singing the Nancy Sinatra tune “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” while Jay-Z watches his sultry lady, smoking all the while. The footage is sexy, but it doesn’t give us much of a glimpse of what On The Run is all about.
Luckily, the rest of the trailer in the video does. In less than a minute we get to see Beyoncé hop from costume to costume at a rapid pace. It’s not just the costume changes that are frenetic, her dance moves are too, and it's pretty amusing to see the shots of Bey, hair swirling, juxtaposed with Jay-Z just chilling onstage. Oh wait, there’s one shot of Jay-Z working with the crowd to get their arms swaying. Nice to see he's not a complete zombie onstage.
I may be big on teasing Jay-Z, but honestly, the On The Run Tour has been a pretty big event for both Jay-Z and Beyoncé, not only because both are massive headliners and moneymakers, but also because the tour has helped to combat rumors that the couple are having marriage problems and may be on the way to divorce town (also to combat the rumors that Bey had a surrogate when she was supposedly pregnant; the list goes on). I guess when the celebrity gossip gets tough, it’s nice to know a couple can still share their love in/of the spotlight.
Honestly, though, On The Run looks like it should be an interesting watch, and Beyoncé has already proven that she can be a big earner for HBO, thanks to the success story that is her HBO documentary, Life is But a Dream. That program did nearly 2 million total viewers during its first run, which may not seem like a ton of eyeballs, but is pretty good business for a documentary on a subscription cable channel. Obviously, the network is looking to repeat with the On The Run footage, and from the looks of things, the concert program should do pretty big business for HBO.
If you’ve been wanting to see Jay-Z and Beyoncé in action, you can catch HBO's On The Run on Saturday, September 20 at 9 p.m. ET.
