Sony Pictures and filmmaker Sam Mendes have been brainstorming innovative ideas for the release of their four Beatles biopics, including bundling the films’ box office returns.
The first glimpse of their strategy emerged this weekend when Mendes’ producing partner Pippa Harris pulled back the curtain a bit. “We want people to be able to experience them in cinema at the same time, for the same period of time,” she said during the opening session of the BFI London Film Festival’s Industry Forum. “That doesn’t necessarily mean we think people will go see all four movies on the same day. But in the same month, you might see one a week, or see one movie one weekend and another the next day.”
Harris’ comments have been interpreted in different ways – for example, the films could be released in different weeks within the same month. But sources say The Hollywood Reporter the director and studio have long considered releasing all four films on the same day.
Additionally, Mendes and the studio brainstormed a very unique reporting structure for the films’ box office revenues. Instead of releasing the tally for each film individually, the studio considered aggregating the returns from all four films.
This would, in effect, prevent the expected horse racing drama of “John Lennon’s movie is $12 million more popular than George Harrison’s movie” or whatever. However, data on ticket sales per film would still likely be released to the media from independent sources.
“Who is your favorite Beatles?” has been a topic of conversation and debate that has followed the group since its inception, and there is an understandable reluctance to have the Beatles’ films establish a popularity ranking and an exact figure on this issue – especially since the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, are actively involved in the films. The legendary musicians gave their thoughts on the storylines and met the respective actors playing their roles (Paul Mescal, Harris Dickinson, Joseph Quinn and Barry Keoghan play Paul, John, George and Ringo respectively).
Another idea being considered would be to offer a four-pack of tickets to encourage fans to purchase tickets to all the films at once instead of choosing one or two to watch in theaters and saving the rest for streaming. However, it’s unclear how this would actually work in practice, as it would presumably involve getting major theater chains to implement an unusual ticket purchasing structure.
Assuming that all four films are indeed released in the same week, sources also say that the plan is to market the films as having no particular order – that there will be no “right” order in which to watch the films.
Each of these four fabulous ideas indicates that Mendes and the studio are looking for creative solutions to the broader challenge of getting audiences to watch not just a film about the Beatles, but a quartet, each told from the perspective of a different member of the group, without giving more weight to one film or using a structure that pushes one film to potentially cannibalize audiences for another.
Sources stress that these plans remain fluid amid ongoing discussions and could change.
The Beatles films are released in April 2028, which Sony no doubt hopes will be a relatively uncompetitive time on the calendar to ensure there is enough space in each market for John, Paul, George and Ringo to each have enough screens.
Sony Pictures had no comment on the plans.
Gn entert
