Sony Might Drop Every Sam Mendes ‘Beatles’ Movie on the Same Day, With a Ticket Bundle To Match

Sam Mendes’ Beatles project was already one of the boldest bets in modern Hollywood. Sony Pictures is financing and distributing 4 separate features, each telling the band’s story through one member’s eyes, under the banner ‘The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event.’ Harris Dickinson plays John Lennon, Paul Mescal plays Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn plays George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan plays Ringo Starr.

When the cast and an April 2028 window were unveiled at Sony’s CinemaCon presentation in April 2025, Mendes pitched the project to exhibitors as the first binge-able theatrical experience. Exactly how that binge would work has been an open question since then, and outlets have described the rollout as simultaneous, staggered, or spread across several April weekends.

Now the picture is coming into focus, and it’s even more ambitious than expected. According to an exclusive report from The Hollywood Reporter, Sony and Mendes are considering releasing all 4 films on the same day. They’re also weighing a 4-pack of tickets that would encourage fans to buy into the whole saga at once.

The 4-pack idea reportedly addresses a very modern studio worry. Audiences might see 1 or 2 of the films in theaters and wait to stream the rest, which would undercut the whole event strategy.

It’s still unclear how a bundle would actually work, since major cinema chains would need to adopt an unusual ticket-buying structure. Sources told the trade the plans remain fluid and could change, and Sony had no comment.

If the films do land the same week, the plan is reportedly to market them with no set viewing order. Fans could start with Lennon’s story, Starr’s, or anyone else’s and piece the band’s history together in their own sequence.

The most unusual idea in the report may be how Sony handles the numbers. Rather than reporting each film’s grosses separately, the studio has reportedly considered combining the returns of all 4 into a single figure.

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— The Beatles (@thebeatles) December 21, 2020

The reasoning is partly diplomatic. Separate tallies would invite headlines about one Beatle’s movie beating another’s, an awkward look for a project the surviving band members are directly involved in. McCartney and Starr have given feedback on the scripts and met the actors playing them.

April is also expected to be a relatively uncrowded window, which would help 4 films from the same studio secure enough screens without cannibalizing one another too badly. The report follows comments from producing partner Pippa Harris at the BFI London Film Festival’s Industry Forum.

She said the goal is for audiences to experience the films in cinemas during the same period. She clarified that this doesn’t mean anyone is expected to watch all 4 in a single sitting.

Harris suggested viewers might see 1 film a week, or catch them across different weekends within the same month. She also described each film as a standalone story of 1 of the 4 men, while arguing they carry greater cumulative power together.

According to The Hollywood Reporter’s sources, though, Mendes and the studio have long considered a same-day release. That suggests the binge-style launch was never just a marketing flourish.

The films are being shot as one continuous production in the UK by Neal Street, the company Mendes co-founded with Harris and Caro Newling, and Harris spoke as the shoot reached its 180th day. Jez Butterworth, Peter Straughan and Jack Thorne wrote the screenplays.

Apple Corps is a production partner, and the band and estates have granted full life story and music rights for scripted films, a first for the Beatles. The supporting cast reportedly includes Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney, Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono, Aimee Lou Wood as Pattie Boyd, Mia McKenna-Bruce as Maureen Starkey and James Norton as Brian Epstein.

Sony has roughly 18 months to finalize individual dates with theater owners, so plenty could still change. But the studio is clearly treating this as something closer to a festival than a typical release, and the risk is as big as the potential payoff.

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