Sony Weighs Releasing All of Sam Mendes' 'The Beatles' Biopics on the Same Day With a Ticket Bundle to Match

No band has been put on film quite like the Beatles. They starred in movies during their heyday, but telling their story on screen has been a different matter, with earlier biopic attempts more sporadic and less impactful. Sony and Sam Mendes decided the usual single-film approach wouldn’t do justice to the biggest-selling music act of all time.

Instead, they’re making 4 movies. ‘The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event‘ gives each band member his own film, all directed by Mendes, with Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. All 4 are set to open in April 2028, and Sony has committed to financing and distributing them worldwide.

Now the studio’s release plans are getting even bolder. The Hollywood Reporter reports that Sony and Mendes are considering releasing all 4 movies on the same day. They are also weighing a 4-pack of tickets to encourage fans to see all of the films at once.

The idea builds on comments made over the weekend by Mendes’ producing partner Pippa Harris. Speaking at the BFI London Film Festival’s Industry Forum, she said the filmmakers want audiences to experience the films in cinemas during the same period. She clarified that this doesn’t necessarily mean seeing all 4 on the same day, and suggested people might see one a week or a couple in a weekend.

Her remarks were read in different ways, but THR’s sources say the director and studio have long mulled dropping all 4 on the same day. They also note that plans remain fluid and could change. Sony had no comment.

The ticket bundle is meant to solve a real problem. Studios worry that fans will cherry-pick one or two films in theaters and save the rest for streaming. A 4-pack would encourage buying tickets to everything up front.

It’s not clear how it would work in practice. It would presumably require major cinema chains to implement an unusual ticket-buying structure. Sources also say that if the films do arrive the same week, the plan is to market them as having no particular order.

Another idea is just as unusual. Rather than reporting each film’s tally individually, the studio has considered lumping the returns of all 4 together. That would prevent headlines about the John Lennon film outperforming the George Harrison film by a certain amount.

The reasoning is partly diplomatic. The question of who’s your favorite Beatle has followed the band for decades, and there’s reluctance to attach a dollar ranking to it. The 2 surviving Beatles, McCartney and Starr, are actively involved, having provided feedback on scripts and met with the actors playing them.

The scale is enormous. The films are written by Jez Butterworth, Peter Straughan and Jack Thorne, and they mark the first time the Beatles have granted full life story and music rights for official scripted biographical films. Production has been underway in the UK, and the shoot reached its 180th day this week.

Harris has said the films stand alone as individual stories of each of the 4 men, but have a cumulative power greater than the sum of their parts. Mendes has described the project as the first bingeable theatrical experience. Early first-look images of the cast were hidden as postcards around the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, which McCartney co-founded.

The strategy carries obvious risk. With all 4 films in one month, they share the same word of mouth, so a weak opener could drag down the rest. They could also compete against each other for screens in the same multiplexes. Sony hopes April 2028 will be a relatively competition-light spot on the calendar, leaving enough room in each market for John, Paul, George and Ringo.

But the upside is just as big. If audiences treat it as a once-in-a-generation event, April could become a month moviegoers plan around. At a time when theaters are searching for must-see events, that’s a bold way to bring fans back.