The full 90-minute, 35 mm film finally made its world premiere on 31 August 1979 at the Edinburgh Film Festival. In 1983, it was released to theatres worldwide and also to the home video market as "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture", coinciding with the release of a live concert soundtrack album entitled "". Hall wrote that plans for a theatrical release in the late 1980s were cancelled in favor of a "quickie video release". However, the film did play in cinemas in 1984, including on the U.S. midnight movie circuit.