I Wanna Hold Your Hand is a comedy film directed and co-written by Robert Zemeckis that takes its name from the 1963 Beatles song. 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 Pictures. The movie was Robert Zemeckis' directorial debut. Even though the film was modestly budgeted, in order to convince Universal to bankroll the film, Steven 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 [but] 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." (via Wikipedia)