Sony is taking a very experimental approach to The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event, and there are both pros and cons to the studio’s risky release strategy. The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event is a series of four films, all being developed concurrently, that will function as one big biopic of the Beatles, with each movie focusing on the life of a different Beatle.
Harris Dickinson will play John Lennon, Paul Mescal will play Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn will play George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan will play Ringo Starr. They’ll each star in their own movie, chronicling their own Beatle’s life story, and they’ll also appear in each other’s films as the band members cross over into each other’s lives.
All four movies will be released at the same time on April 7, 2028, so audiences will have to purchase four tickets in one month to see the whole thing. The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event is being described as a bingeable theatrical experience, like a Netflix series where you have to go to a theater and buy a ticket to watch each episode.
It’s an extremely risky undertaking, and the general consensus seems to be that it’s a really bad idea (both creatively and financially). But there are advantages and disadvantages to this unique approach.
Some Beatle Biopics Will Inevitably Have More Draw Than Others
There are obvious downsides to this “four-film cinematic event” experiment. It’s tough enough to get audiences into theaters for one movie at a time, let alone four in one month. It might put some people off entirely because the pressure to see all four feels like homework, like keeping up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe or watching a movie with “Part 1” in the title.
Plus, these four films won’t all have an equal amount of draw with audiences. The John and Paul movies, for example, will clearly have a lot more pull than the Ringo movie. Giving Ringo his own movie is like if Marvel came out of the gate with a Doorman movie alongside its Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor movies.
Releasing The Beatles Movies In One Month Will Make Them Easier To Market
But it’s not all doom and gloom. There are some upsides to Sony’s great experiment, too. For starters, The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event will be a lot easier (and not to mention cheaper) to market if all four movies are coming out on the same day. The studio will be able to advertise it all as one product, rather than rolling out four separate marketing campaigns.
That’ll slash the marketing budget to a quarter of what it could’ve been. This way, Sony just has to get trailers and posters and interviews out there in the months leading up to April 2028, with all four stars promoting all four movies under the banner of the same campaign.
Sony Probably Isn’t Banking On Every Single One Being A Hit
People are looking at this release strategy as if Sony is banking on all four movies being hits, but that’s probably not the case. If they’re releasing four movies with the marketing budget of one, then the break-even point for the whole project will be significantly lower than usual. Their accountants have likely worked out an arrangement where they only need one or two to break out.
The studio probably doesn’t expect general audiences to go to all four. They might be hoping that enough people are interested in at least one or two (likely the John and Paul films), and enough word of mouth will spread about at least one of them being really great (maybe the George movie will be a sleeper hit), that it’ll cover the profit margins for the entire endeavor.
4x The Movies Means 4x The Chance Of A Breakout Word-Of-Mouth Blockbuster
The most powerful movie marketing tool in today’s industry is positive word-of-mouth. Trailers and press junkets can generate awareness (and, in some cases, hype) for a movie, but a lot of audiences will stay at home unless there’s a cultural consensus that everyone needs to watch a certain amazing movie on the big screen.
In the last year alone, we’ve seen good word-of-mouth turn Sinners, Weapons, and The Housemaid into huge box office hits. If Sony is making four Beatles movies, then they have four opportunities for one of them to capture the zeitgeist and generate this kind of word-of-mouth buzz.
Nothing Like The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event Has Ever Been Attempted Before
A lot of people are baffled by the thinking behind The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event, but people are always baffled by new ideas. Nothing like this has ever been attempted before — it’s a brand-new approach to moviemaking — and that alone makes it exciting.
Even if the whole thing turns out to be a complete disaster, it’s good to know that modern movie studios won’t always play it safe, and they’re willing to take big swings like this. When April 2028 rolls around, maybe The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event will become an Avengers: Endgame-level blockbuster hit, and all the naysayers will be left to eat their words.