Magnolia Pictures Acquires North American Rights To Venice And Telluride Hit “One To One: John & Yoko”

Magnolia Pictures announced today that they have acquired North American rights to ONETOONE: JOHN&YOKO, from Oscar®-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald (TheLastKingofScotland, Marley, HBO’s OneDayinSeptember, TheMauritanian). An expansive and revelatory inside look at the 18 months John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent living in Greenwich Village in the early 1970s, ONETOONE: JOHN&YOKO delivers an immersive cinematic experience that brings to life electrifying, never-before-seen material and newly restored footage of Lennon’s only full-length, post-Beatles concert. With mind-blowing remastered audio overseen by their son, Sean Ono Lennon, the film is a seismic revelation that will challenge pre-existing notions of the iconic couple. Following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, the documentary had its North American bow at the Telluride Film Festival and will screen next in Sundance Film Festival’s Spotlight section. Magnolia will open the film exclusively in IMAX April 11 before expanding to additional theaters. The film will air on HBO and will be available to stream on Max in late 2025.  

On August 30, 1972, in New York City, John Lennon played his only full-length show after leaving The Beatles, the One to One benefit concert at Madison Square Garden, a rollicking, dazzling performance from him and Yoko Ono. Macdonald’s riveting documentary takes that legendary musical event and uses it as the starting point to explore eighteen defining months in the lives of John and Yoko. By 1971 the couple was newly arrived in the United States— living in a tiny apartment in Greenwich Village and watching a huge amount of American television. The film uses a riotous mélange of American TV to conjure the era through what the two would have been seeing on the screen: the Vietnam War, ThePriceisRight, Nixon, Coca-Cola ads, Cronkite, TheWaltons. As they experience a year of love and transformation in the US, John and Yoko begin to change their approach to protest  — ultimately leading to the One to One concert, which was inspired by a Geraldo Rivera exposé they watched on TV. Filmed in a meticulously faithful reproduction of the NYC apartment the duo shared, ONETOONE: JOHN&YOKO offers a bold new take on a seminal time in the lives of two of history’s most influential artists. 

“ONETOONE: JOHN&YOKO is a revelation,” said Magnolia Pictures co-CEO’s Eamonn Bowles and Dori Begley. “Kevin Macdonald has given us an incredibly fresh, marvelously human and revealing look at the iconic couple.”

“I am personally thrilled to be back with the Magnolia and HBO teams to be giving ONETOONE: JOHN&YOKO the ambitious theatrical release that I always dreamed of for this film,” said Kevin Macdonald. “This is a movie about music and love and politics – and about immersing yourself in the year of 1972 – a period in time that feels uncannily like the world we are currently inhabiting. And more than anything else I’m grateful to Sean Lennon and Mercury Studios for entrusting the incredible One to One concert to me.”

Mercury Studios Presents A Plan B/KM Films & Mercury Studios Production. ONETOONE: JOHN&YOKO is directed by Kevin Macdonald. Edited & Co-directed by Sam Rice-Edwards. Produced by Peter Worsley, Kevin Macdonald and Alice Webb. Executive Producers are Marc Robinson, David Joseph, Steve Condie, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner.

The deal was negotiated by Magnolia SVP of Acquisitions John Von Thaden, with Cinetic on behalf of the filmmakers.

An expansive and revelatory inside look at the 18 months John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent living in Greenwich Village in the early 1970s, ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO delivers an immersive cinematic experience that brings to life electrifying, never-before-seen material and newly restored footage of Lennon’s only full-length, post-Beatles concert. With mind-blowing remastered audio overseen by their son, Sean Ono Lennon, the film is a seismic revelation that will challenge pre-existing notions of the iconic couple.
 
On August 30, 1972, in New York City, John Lennon played his only full-length show after leaving The Beatles, the One to One benefit concert at Madison Square Garden, a rollicking, dazzling performance from him and Yoko Ono. Oscar®-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald’s riveting documentary takes that legendary musical event and uses it as the starting point to explore eighteen defining months in the lives of John and Yoko. By 1971 the couple was newly arrived in the United States— living in a tiny apartment in Greenwich Village and watching a huge amount of American television. The film uses a riotous mélange of American TV to conjure the era through what the two would have been seeing on the screen: the Vietnam War, The Price is Right, Nixon, Coca-Cola ads, Cronkite, The Waltons. As they experience a year of love and transformation in the US, John and Yoko begin to change their approach to protest — ultimately leading to the One to One concert, which was inspired by a Geraldo Rivera exposé they watched on TV. Filmed in a meticulously faithful reproduction of the NYC apartment the duo shared, ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO offers a bold new take on a seminal time in the lives of two of history’s most influential artists.