Yesterday, the film based on the premise that a struggling musician is the only person who remembers The Beatles, earned $24.7 million worldwide, placing it fifth overall, on its opening weekend. The movie, which opened in theaters for late night screenings on June 27, grossed $17 million in the U.S. (good for third place) and another $7.7 million internationally. (Toy Story 4 again led the domestic box-office with $57.9 million.)
Yesterday, starring Himesh Patel as the musician, along with SNL’s Kate McKinnon, Lily James and superstar musician Ed Sheeran, comes from director Danny Boyle – whose 2008 film, Slumdog Millionaire, swept the Oscars – with a screenplay from Richard Curtis, who wrote the 2003 favorite, Love Actually.
Jack Malik (Patel, BBC’s Eastenders) is a struggling singer-songwriter in a tiny English seaside town whose dreams of fame are rapidly fading, despite the fierce devotion and support of his childhood best friend, Ellie (Lily James, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again). After a freak bus accident during a mysterious global blackout, Jack wakes up to discover that The Beatles have never existed.
Malik strums “Yesterday” in front of three female friends who are awestruck by the song. “When did you write that,” James’ character asks.
“I didn’t write it. Paul McCartney wrote it. The Beatles,” he answers.
“Who?”
Watch the May 13 trailer
As of June 30, the website, Rotten Tomatoes, which aggregates reviews, has it rated 60% Fresh based on 219 reviews. Audiences gave it a 90% positive rating. The Hollywood Reporter wrote: “Crowd-pleasing and sometimes enjoyable, but pretty damned dumb when you stop to think about it.”
Related: Our review of Yesterday
Watch Jack perform “Leave it Be,” er, “Let it Be”
Watch Patel perform the title track at Abbey Road Studios
From the production notes: “Performing songs by the greatest band in history to a world that has never heard them, and with a little help from his steel-hearted American agent, Debra (Emmy winner McKinnon), Jack’s fame explodes.
But as his star rises, he risks losing Ellie — the one person who always believed in him. With the door between his old life and his new closing, Jack will need to get back to where he once belonged and prove that all you need is love.”
Watch a clip released on June 18
Related: When The Beatles sang “Yesterday” on The Ed Sullivan Show
Watch Ed Sheeran try to convince Jack to change a song title to “Hey Dude”
4 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationOK, this is intriguing. I know, another ‘what if’ Beatle movie. But there have been some decent ones, some. Besides, I want to find out who the 2 guys are who ‘actually’ wrote those songs from the first trailer.
I bet it was Paul and John. Notice, the one didn’t have any shoes on.
How delightfully PC. Why does Boyle bother if everything has to be political?
What about it is PC? I don’t see how that criticism fits.