Will The Beatles movies turn Gen Z and Alpha into new fans behaving like modern fans of boy bands?

Dear Gossips,

Sarah posted on Friday in this space about how 2026 has been, so far, a strong year at the box office, bolstered by the success this summer of The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day back-to-back. But also Obsession and Backrooms. And The Devil Wears Prada 2. And Toy Story 5. And several films that are highly anticipated in the fall and during the holidays, including the Doomsday showdown when Avengers and Dune 3 open at the same time.

This doesn’t necessarily mean we’re back to where we were before COVID, a full rebound. But it is (temporarily) encouraging for future releases, the most ambitious releases perhaps being The Beatles Cinematic Event, with Sam Mendes directing FOUR films about each of the Fab Four to come out at once, either on the same day, or one right after another each week in April of 2028 – definitely a pressure test of what audiences will pay for and how much they’ll pay for it. And also the inevitable measuring of each film against the other. Like… what’s going to happen if the John movie majorly outgrosses the Paul? If The Beatles were the biggest band of this timeline, I’d have fans yelling at me that I just disrespected George and Ringo. How did solo stans behave in the 60s? And what outlets did they have? Will The Beatles movies turn Gen Z and Alpha into new fans, behaving like modern fans of boy bands? It’s not like each of the actors (Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, and Barry Keoghan), respectively, isn’t already internet famous.

This weekend, all four actors playing the Beatles were seeing at Abbey Road shooting the infamous album cover.

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A post shared by Joseph Quinn HQ (@josephquinnhq)

Let’s shout out the hair and makeup department here because they f-cking nailed it. Let me get the mess started and start speculating about Oscar nominations way way way prematurely. Hair and makeup should contend but where the actual films and performances are concerned, how does that work for consideration? It’s four separate films!

Yours in gossip,

Lainey