The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years

"The band you know. The story you don't."

2016 1h 46m EN

🙌

7.5

BANGER

★7.5TMDB · 394

DocumentaryMusic

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

The Beatles stormed through Europe's music scene in 1963, and, in 1964, they conquered America. Their groundbreaking world tours changed global youth culture forever and, arguably, invented mass entertainment as we know it today. All the while, the group were composing and recording a series of extraordinarily successful singles and albums. However the relentless pressure of such unprecedented fame, that in 1966 became uncontrollable turmoil, led to the decision to stop touring. In the ensuing years The Beatles were then free to focus on a series of albums that changed the face of recorded music.

“The band you know. The story you don't.”

WhatsApp X Facebook Telegram

Where to watch · US

Cast

Paul McCartney
Self
Ringo Starr
Self
John Lennon
Self (Archive Footage)
George Harrison
Self (Archive Footage)
Larry Kane
Self
Whoopi Goldberg
Self
Elvis Costello
Self
Suzy Eddie Izzard
Herself

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Ron Howard
Writers: P.G. Morgan, Mark Monroe, P.G. Morgan
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $12M — a 2456760.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 10 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Ron Howard, shot by Tim Suhrstedt. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and John Lennon carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "The band you know. The story you don't.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt2531318 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ron Howard directs. Tim Suhrstedt behind the camera. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $0.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Grossed $12M — a 2456760.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
3Released 10 years ago.
4International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.
5Directed by Ron Howard, shot by Tim Suhrstedt. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and John Lennon carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "The band you know. The story you don't.".
8IMDB entry: tt2531318 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Tim Suhrstedt
Sound: Chris Jenkins
Runtime: 106 min · 1h 46m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $5
Box office: $12,283,800
Return: 245676000% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years (2016)

Also by

Ron Howard

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-03-13
★ 7/10
It was often said that for people growing up in some of Britain's post-war industrial cities, the only way up/out was a career in music or boxing! Well these four men chose the former. What's astonishing with this documentary is just how much archive there still is, and at just how decent the quality of the audio is from concerts where the music was essentially just piped around increasingly large venues using the tannoy system. This film takes the band from their conquest of the USA in 1963 through their almost constant touring around the globe for the next four years. Peppered with some interviews from the the surviving members as well as a few super-fans that augment the footage nicely, we see quite a change from the haphazard nature of their image and their performance style - attributed to the vision of manager Brian Epstein, as well as following them through the trials and tribulations of dealing with a world facing some tough times and an USA still riddled with racial division that was about to start to come to an head. Veteran American reporter Larry Kane has some good context to add about his initial scepticism about following a band of Britons around his country before his realisation that they were the news - and big news at that. There are plenty of musical performances and some of the crowd footage is borderline fanatic as people are fainting, screaming and collapsing all over the place. The narrative also helps give us a little insight into why the band stopped playing live too. Diehard fans may have seen all of this before, but it's still an interesting and sometimes quite toxic story to watch unfold.

Production companies