Beauty and the Beast made a lot of money this weekend.
Just last year, Batman v Superman set a record for the most amount of money grossed for the opening weekend of a March release – domestic totals only. It took in $166 million. Well, that record has just been beaten, as Disney‘s remake of Beauty and the Beast took in $174.75 million this past weekend. That’s not just inching over the finish line; that’s blowing by it. $174.75 also puts Beauty and the Beast 6th all time when it comes to domestic opening weekends.
The movie also took in over $182 million overseas, bringing its total opening weekend gross to approximately $357 million. For comparison’s sake, the original film grossed $425 million worldwide – after you factor in its two re-releases and not accounting for inflation.
For more recent comparisons, last year’s The Jungle Book took in $103 million domestic in its first weekend, Cinderella grossed $68 million, Maleficent made $69 million, and Alice in Wonderland brought in $116 million. That puts Beauty and the Beast $50 million higher than its closest competitor, and it also has a larger take than both Cinderella and Maleficient combined when just looking at the opening weekends.
As for what that means for the future, Beauty and the Beast will almost undoubtedly be the first $1 billion film of 2017. It will also reaffirm to Disney that remaking its classic animated films is a solid business decision – as if that was needed. The company has already announced remakes of The Lion King, Aladdin, Dumbo, and The Little Mermaid, and probably has others in the works that are still waiting to be announced.
Your take away? Get used to these, whether you like them or not.
Financial source: BoxOfficeMojo
