I have an affinity for Katy Perry. I do admit she’s like the Walmart version of a wannabe pop princess, who showcases a ton of glitz, a dash of glamor, and a lot of cookie-cutter, overcaffeinated theatricality, but I’m not remotely above humming along happily to several of her songs. Even if at times she feels like she was created in a boardroom and not organically through a lot of heart, sweat, and tears, I’m okay with that. She makes me smile.
But I am likely not the best person to speak about her IMAX concert film, Katy Perry: The Lifetimes Tour – Live from Paris. Much of this raucous, overproduced, two-hour spectacle is too schmaltzy in its glittery excess even for me to casually dismiss. Still, Perry has undeniable charm and stage presence, and I love that you can tell she’s actually singing and not lip-syncing to her biggest hits. There’s something endearing about watching a talented performer try not to gasp for air so she can finish a lyric while somersaulting backward in an airborne harness across a glowing infinity-symbol stage.
Directed by concert film veteran Paul Dugdale (eight in 2026 alone, including Dua Lipa Live from Mexico and Disney Princess: The Ultimate Concert Celebration), the show — as originally conceived by Perry — is presented as a pop battle between a mechanized chanteuse warrior and a rogue AI that has kidnapped all of the world’s butterflies. Yes — that’s the plot of the concert. I didn’t make that up.
However, as silly as that video game scenario sounds, it does make for a good excuse for Perry to dress up in several cartoon-inspired outfits and sing an impressive 31 numbers. Those costumes range from garishly robotic anime aesthetics to hard-candy swirls come to shimmery life. We then watch Perry parade around her figure-eight stage with confident gusto, her cadre of athletic male dancers acrobatically moving all around her for the majority of each performance (there are rare, and notable, exceptions).
The Parisian stadium crowd vociferously eats it all up and, for fans, I’m certain experiencing this showcase secondhand in all its IMAX glory will be worth the ticket price. I only enjoyed myself in fits and starts. The opening selections, “Artificial” and the undeniably catchy “Chained to the Rhythm” are terrific, and a goofy presentation of “California Gurls” brought a big smile to my face. An emotional rendition of “Not Like the Movies” unexpectedly gave me all the feels, while an inspired presentation of semi-deep cut “Nirvana” is outstanding. Additionally, the one-two punch climax of “Wonder” followed by — no shock here — “Firework” more agreeably hit the spot.
The best moments come when Perry seems to completely let her guard down and embrace the audience as if they’re all sitting in some small café, enjoying an evening chatting and singing pleasantly with one another. This culminates in the artist bringing up four attendees to the stage (including two adorable twin girls in matching outfits, and a proudly swishy Gay superfan dressed like a character from one of her music videos) and proceeds to treat them like they’ve all been the best of friends for eons. It’s an act, of course, but it still comes off as genuine. It also establishes an undeniable connection between Perry and the audience that I found delightful.
But so many other moments land with a thud, not the least of which is a balletic presentation of “I Kissed a Girl” — as rousing a Queer kick-butt anthem as there ever was — in which Perry still does not come anywhere near to, you know, actually kissing a girl. Additionally, it is the one number in which she is noticeably surrounded by her male dancers for most of the song. Even though Dugdale makes it a point to frequently cut to girls in the audience happily smooching, the whole performance sadly reminded me of the hysterical “Equal Rights (Not Gay)” music video from the Andy Samberg music mockumentary Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. That’s not a compliment.
Other songs that underwhelmed include “Roar,” “Woman’s World,” “I’m His, He’s Mine,” and “E.T.” They didn’t do anything for me.
Still, it’s fun watching Perry being frantically whisked underneath the stage between set breaks to quickly change, and the opening 15 minutes in which we see the singer train, rehearse, and prepare for this show has a surprising amount of incisive, introspective weight. The highs outweigh the lows, and even if some aspects of this concert left me cold, the moments where I responded to the energetic performance more than made up for many of the film’s more obvious missteps.
Katy Perry: The Lifetimes Tour – Live from Paris may not go boom, boom, boom, and it certainly is not brighter than the moon, moon, moon. But Perry still lets her colors burst, and I’m all but certain many of her most ardent fans will sit in that IMAX auditorium feeling nothing but awe, awe, awe. For a little less than two hours, the singer owns the night, just like that Fourth of July firework.
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