Live-action Beauty and the Beast has record-breaking opening weekend, taking US$350 million worldwide
Disney hails ‘incredible, amazing’ box office results for film’s opening weekend, the best yet in US for a live-action production from studio, which came amid controversy over a brief gay scene
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast brought so many guests to cinemas over the weekend that the live-action remake became the biggest box-office opener in the United States so far of the year, and the seventh-best debut of all time.
The film brought in an impressive US$170 million, well above analyst expectations of US$130 million to US$150 million. It’s the highest domestic debut ever for a Disney live-action title and the seventh Walt Disney Studios release to open at more than US$150 million. The picture also brought in US$180 million internationally.
“It’s incredible. It’s amazing,” said Dave Hollis, the studio’s distribution chief. “There are almost no words to fully capture how gratifying it is to see a result like this from a team that has been working on telling stories like this for years.”
The picture, which cost US$160 million to make, stars Emma Watson of the Harry Potter franchise as Belle and Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) as the cursed prince. The story stays fairly close to the beloved 1991 animated original, a box-office smash that became the first animated movie to earn a best picture Oscar nomination. Directed by Bill Condon, known for The Twilight Saga and the musical Dreamgirls, the new film is well on its way to following in its predecessor’s history-making footsteps.