I Wanna Hold Your Hand (film)

I Wanna Hold Your Hand (film)

I Wanna Hold Your Hand is a 1978 comedy film directed and co-written by Robert Zemeckis, which takes its name from the 1963 song "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles. It was produced and co-written by Bob Gale. The film is about "Beatlemania" and is a fictionalized account of the day of the Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show (February 9, 1964). It was released in 1978 by Universal Studios.

The film was Robert Zemeckis' directorial debut and the first film that Steven Spielberg executively produced. Even though the film was modestly budgeted, in order to convince Universal to bankroll the film, Spielberg had to promise studio executives that, if Zemeckis was seen to be doing a markedly poor job, he would step in and direct the film himself.

Despite positive previews and critical response (The New York Times wrote that "the whole film sparkles with a boisterous lunacy" and called its plot "positively dazzling"), the film was not a financial success and was considered a flop, unable to recoup its rather modest $2.8 million budget. Zemeckis later said, "One of the great memories in my life is going to the preview. I didn't know what to expect the audience just went wild. They were laughing and cheering. It was just great. Then we learned a really sad lesson....just because a movie worked with a preview audience didn't mean anyone wanted to go see it."

Over a year later, in December 1979, four of the film's stars – Bobby DiCicco, Wendie Jo Sperber, Nancy Allen and Eddie Deezen – appeared in the Spielberg-directed comedy film 1941, which was written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis.