UPDATE: 2025/09/12 17:31 EST BY BRENNAN KLEIN
Initial Budget Reporting Was Inaccurate
Sources say that the reported $100 million budgets for the Beatles movies are inaccurate. The exact budgets of the movies remain unknown for the time being.
The enormous reported budget for the upcoming biopic project currently known as The Beatles – Four Films has been revealed. The project, which is due in theaters in April 2028, is being directed by Sam Mendes and will involve four separate feature films, with each focusing on the perspective of one member of the iconic British Invasion group The Beatles.
The cast of the Beatles movies includes Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. While many movies have been made about the Beatles, this is the first to have direct involvement from both surviving Beatles alongside Lennon and Harrison’s estates.
A new update from Puck shares that the budgets for the four Beatles movies are reportedly roughly $100 million apiece. The decision-maker behind this price tag was Tom Rothman, who is the chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group.
While there is some doubt whether these movies will be able to make a return on their investment, the lavishly expensive project also has the potential to be a huge success. Puck spoke to a producer familiar with Rothman who said that “he’s going to have to retire sometime, and the Beatles movies might be the right time to do it.”
What This Means For The Beatles – Four Films
Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan, and Joseph Quinn assembled against a white backdrop for the Beatles movie promotion
If the four Beatles biopic movies are considered as a single project, this combined reported budget of $400 million would make it the fifth most expensive movie of all time, behind Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ($416 million), Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($447 million), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($465 million), and Jurassic World Dominion ($465 million).
Additionally, because movies typically need to earn back two and a half times their budgets in theaters, this could place each movie’s individual break-even point around $250 million and their combined break-even point around $1 billion. This would require a nearly unprecedented level of theatrical performance, as only two music biopics have ever grossed more than $250 million.
Below, see a breakdown of the Top 5 highest-grossing music biopics of all time:
#
Title
Box Office
1
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
$910.8 million
2
Elvis (2022)
$288.7 million
3
Straight Outta Compton (2015)
$201.6 million
4
Rocketman (2019)
$195.3 million
5
Walk the Line (2005)
$186.8 million
While the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide during its theatrical run, the movie was an extreme outlier among others of its kind. However, because the Beatles movies are about similarly legendary musicians, there is a chance the movies could hit that same height.
Our Take On The Beatles – Four Films Budget
The Beatles posing on the album cover for Help
Ultimately, it is impossible to judge how well these movies will perform, because no Beatles project has ever been attempted at this scale, with this level of talent both in front of and behind the camera.
Additionally, the fact that the presentation of The Beatles – Four Films will be in an unique marathon structure that takes place over the course of a single month will make it an unprecedented event, which could pique the interest of ticket buyers and help make it a smash success.