Film releases As originally edited, the Wattstax film concluded with two performances by Isaac Hayes of hit songs from the motion picture Shaft: "Theme from Shaft" and "Soulsville." Following Wattstax's premiere on February 4, 1973 at the Los Angeles Music Center, but before its wide release in the United States, Stax Films and Wolper Films were informed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), producers and distributors of Shaft, that Wattstax could not be released with Hayes' performance numbers. MGM's contracts for the music in Shaft prevented any use of those songs in any other film until 1978. As a result, Isaac Hayes was pulled from a tour in the Netherlands to return to Los Angeles and film a new performance number based around his next scheduled single, "Rolling Down a Mountainside." This number concluded the original theatrical release of Wattstax from Columbia Pictures and most subsequent television and home video exhibitions. Because of profanity used throughout the film's interview segments, Wattstax was rated "R" by the MPAA in the United States, preventing children under 17 from attending the film unaccompanied by an adult. Despite that rating, Stax promoted the film to family audiences, spinning the "R" rating with the promotional tagline "Rated 'R' Because it's Real." Wattstax was restored and remastered in 2003, using Apple's Final Cut Pro and Cinema Tools to create new film and HD video elements from its original 16 mm film negatives. The original audio elements were used to create a new surround sound soundtrack and new stereo elements for soundtrack album releases. "Theme from Shaft" and "Soulsville" were restored to the film at this time as well. The restored film first played in limited release in the United States during the summer of 2003. In January 2004, the restored version of the film played at the Sundance Film Festival, followed by a theatrical reissue in June by Sony Pictures Repertory. In September 2004, the PBS series P.O.V. aired a new documentary about the concert and the movie. That same month, the movie was released on DVD by Warner Bros., which obtained the video rights when it purchased the Wolper library (Warner's former sister company, Warner Music Group, coincidentally owns the rights to most pre-1968 Stax recordings). Warner Bros. also acquired the distribution rights from Sony as a result of their ownership of the library of current copyright holder The Saul Zaentz Company. Album releases Stax released Wattstax: The