‘Beauty’ proves a beast in sales, smashing box-office record

Additionally, following in the footsteps of “Frozen”, the hope is that the “Beauty and the Beast’s” classic songs will help drive repeat business, the way songs like “Let It Go” did for the computer-animated musical in late 2013.

With “Beauty and the Beast” dominating ticket sales, last weekend’s champ, “Kong: Skull Island”, fell 53% to $28.8 million.

Disney’s live-action remake of the beloved 1991 animated classic roars to the top of the domestic chart this weekend, amassing a spectacular estimated $170 million from 4,210 theaters – averaging $40,380 per location to notch the highest debut for a March title in history. Chinese regulators boasted that they had admitted the film intact and without one of the age warnings permitted under the new Film Promotion Law.

Rumours during filming of Beauty And The Beast abounded that Dan Stevens, who plays the Beast, was refused a rental auto upgrade in order to accommodate his two children; it was also claimed that Disney refused to pay for an upgraded flight for Lily James’ mother during promotion for Cinderella. So “Beauty” wasn’t just a fondly-but-dimly-remembered film from the distant past; rather, it’s been both ubiquitous and popular for more than 25 years straight. It was a joy for me to finally get to do it on the big screen in such a wonderful vehicle as “Beauty and the Beast”. The fact that it is so successful is largely down to director Bill Condon, whose resume includes the incredibly successful movie musical “Dreamgirls”. She described the ballroom scene as magical, and while I doubted anything could top the animated version’s breathtaking dance sequence between Belle and the Beast, somehow the live-action’s rendering was even more extraordinary.

In an era where Hollywood executives ponder the lack of strong females behind and in front of the camera, Beauty once again underscores the buying power of women and girls.

“I love that in our version Belle is not only odd and doesn’t fit in – you see her reading and you see her not really a part of the community. She’s the only Disney princess who actually isn’t a princess”. Not really but it did pretty much what was expected from it and it’s an wonderful effort, being well cast, visually stunning and staying true to the original story. That automatically makes a majority of the live action remake subject to CGI and other forms of animation to realistically create these characters.

“We want to make it more than just a movie”, Kopp said.

The film, featuring “Harry Potter” veteran Emma Watson as a charming Belle to the frightening Beast played by Dan Stevens of “Downton Abbey” fame, set a record for a March opening in North America, Exhibitor Relations reported.