<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> £ 189,000 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $12,299,668 </Td> </Tr> <P> A Hard Day's Night is a 1964 British musical comedy film directed by Richard Lester and starring the Beatles--John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr--during the height of Beatlemania . It was written by Alun Owen and originally released by United Artists . The film portrays several days in the lives of the group . </P> <P> The film was a financial and critical success . Time magazine rated it as one of the all - time great 100 films . British critic Leslie Halliwell described it as a "comic fantasia with music; an enormous commercial success with the director trying every cinematic gag in the book" and awarded it a full four stars . The film is credited as being one of the most influential of all musical films, inspiring numerous spy films, the Monkees' television show and pop music videos . The British Film Institute ranked it the 88th greatest British film of the 20th century . </P>

When did a hard day's night come out