Yesterday (2019 film)

Yesterday began as a 2012 screenplay, Cover Version, by Jack Barth.[6] Barth had been struggling to sell screenplays for decades, and conceived the story when it occurred to him that "if Star Wars hadn't been made and I just came up with the idea for Star Wars, I bet I wouldn't be able to sell it".[6] In Barth's script, a "meditation on professional disappointment", Jack did not find success with the Beatles songs.[6]

An early version of the screenplay was worked on by Mackenzie Crook, who intended to direct;[7] Crook left to work on his television series Detectorists.[8] The script was passed to the production company Working Title. Years later, while working on clearance rights for the Beatles songs, a Working Title producer mentioned the screenplay to filmmaker Richard Curtis, who decided to buy it and rewrite it as a romantic comedy.[6]

According to several interviews, Curtis did not read Barth's script, preferring to use the premise to write his own version;[6] he told Den of Geek: "I had the one-sentence then said I don't want any more information because I sometimes found when I worked with original material that it doesn't come from the heart. So I tried to write a whole film that meant something to me, rather than having too much extra information."[9] However, according to Barth, the final film includes many elements of his screenplay, including John Lennon as a wizened fisherman and the final Harry Potter joke.[6] Curtis credited the joke to a suggestion from Sarah Silverman, who is thanked in the credits.[6]

Barth complained that Curtis had taken sole credit for the screenplay and damaged him financially.[6] He felt that Curtis had changed the story to make Jack a successful songwriter as a reflection of his own career: "He met Rowan Atkinson at Oxford, he came out of Oxford and immediately rode Rowan Atkinson to huge success in his early twenties, he's never been knocked out, as far as I know. Why wouldn't this guy become the most successful songwriter in the world?”[6]

In March 2018, it was announced that Curtis and director Danny Boyle were working on a musical comedy set in the 1960s or 1970s following "a struggling musician who thinks he's the only person who can remember the Beatles", with Himesh Patel cast in the lead role.[10] Boyle convinced Patel was the right choice after listening to him perform the Beatles songs "Yesterday" and "Back in the U.S.S.R." during auditions.[11] Boyle felt that Patel's voice had soul.[12] Patel sang and performed guitar and piano himself.[13] Ed Sheeran's supporting role was originally intended for Coldplay singer Chris Martin, who turned it down.[12]

Later in March 2018, Lily James and Kate McKinnon joined the cast.[14][15] Boyle informed the surviving members and widows of the Beatles about the film and received a reply he described as "lovely" from Beatles drummer Ringo Starr.[16] In April 2018, it was revealed that Ed Sheeran had joined the cast and would potentially also write new music for the film, which would also include Beatles songs.[17][18] Later that month, Ana de Armas and Lamorne Morris had also joined the cast.[19][20] In May 2018, Sophia Di Martino, Joel Fry and Harry Michell joined.[21]

Filming began on 21 April 2018,[22] with production in the United Kingdom starting on 26 April 2018, with scenes filmed all around Suffolk in Cantley, Halesworth, Dunwich, Shingle Street, Latitude Festival and Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.[23] A casting call was issued for extras in overnight scenes shot immediately after Sheeran's four consecutive concerts at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales in May 2018.[24] A further 5,000 extras appeared in scenes at Gorleston-on-Sea Beach in Norfolk in June 2018.[25] Wembley Stadium was also used to film a concert scene.[16] Filming also took place in Liverpool, making use of Penny Lane, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Lime Street Station and the Queensway Tunnel.[26]

In February 2019, it was announced that the title of the film was Yesterday.[27] It is estimated to have cost around $10 million to get the rights for the Beatles' songs to be featured in the film, with the rights to their music being held by Apple Records and Sony/ATV Music Publishing.[28] Scenes with de Armas, who played another love interest for Jack, were cut as test audiences felt it made Jack less sympathetic.[29]

Yesterday grossed $73.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $80.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $153.7 million, against a production budget of $26 million.[2] Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $45 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.[34] However, Universal officially took an $87.8 million loss on the film, which Deadline deduced would eventually result in a $26.5 million profit after TV and video sales were taken into account.[3]

In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $10–15 million from 2,603 theatres in its opening weekend.[35] The film made $6.1 million on its first day, including $1.25 million from Thursday night previews. The opening day audiences were mostly aged over 25 (75%), female (56%), and Caucasian (65%). It ended up slightly exceeding projections and debuting to $17 million, finishing third behind Toy Story 4 and Annabelle Comes Home.[36] In its second weekend the film made $10.7 million, again finishing in third (behind Spider-Man: Far From Home and Toy Story 4),[37] then grossed $6.8 million in its third weekend, falling to fifth.[38]

In other territories, the film opened to $7.8 million, including $2.8 million in the United Kingdom (where it finished second behind Toy Story 4) and $2.5 million in Australia.[39][40]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 63% based on 338 reviews, with an average rating of 6.32/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Yesterday may fall short of fab, but the end result is still a sweetly charming fantasy with an intriguing—albeit somewhat under-explored—premise."[41] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[42] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an 87% overall positive score and a 63% "definite recommend".[36]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film four out of five stars, writing "although this film can be a bit hokey and uncertain on narrative development, the puppyish zest and fun summoned up by Curtis and Boyle carry it along."[43] Robbie Collin also responded positively in his review for The Daily Telegraph, saying the film "rallies in style for a beautifully judged and surprisingly moving finale, which owes a lot to Patel and James's chemistry."[44] Owen Gleiberman of Variety, meanwhile, was less enthusiastic, claiming the film had little soul and calling it a "rom-com wallpapered with the Beatles' greatness."[45] Laura Snapes of The Guardian called Yesterday "the latest jukebox movie to put its women on mute."[46]

Paul McCartney and his wife Nancy Shevell sneaked into a theater in The Hamptons to see the film and "loved it".[47]

As of May 2020, it has been estimated that the film will have generated $68 million in global television revenue, in addition to $10.4 million in net revenue for home video and streaming. This adds up to a total estimated home media revenue of $78.4 million.[3]

The film drew comparisons to several other works dealing with a similar premise or theme.[48][49] Similarities can be found in the 2011 French graphic novel Yesterday by David Blot and Jérémie Royer,[50][51][52] the 2011 Japanese manga I'm a Beatle (僕はビートルズ, Boku wa Bītoruzu) by Tetsuo Fujii and Kaiji Kawaguchi,[53][54] the 1990s British sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart,[55] the 2006 French film Jean-Philippe, and the 2013 novel Enormity by Nick Milligan.[56] In July 2019, Danny Boyle said he was not aware of any earlier works that had a similar premise when he read the script, but that he had only recently became aware of a French film and British sitcom with a similar premise.[12]