Having surpassed the total gross of its animated predecessor midweek, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast has now crossed the half billion dollar mark at the global box office, pushing its total haul to $541.2 million by close of play on Friday and overtaking 20th Century Fox’s Logan ($539.8 million) to become the biggest earner of 2017 to date.
The live-action adaptation is expected to retain top spot at the North American box office in its second weekend with a haul of around $90 million, fending off competition from Lionsgate’s Power Rangers, which is looking at a debut weekend in the region of $40 million. It will have comfortably have passed $600 million when the dust settles on the weekend and will presumably go on to become the first billion dollar movie of the year (some analysts have predicted it could go as high as $1.5 billion).
UPDATE: The weekend numbers are in, and Beauty and the Beast is now sitting on $690.3 million worldwide, making it the fourth consecutive Disney release to pass $600 million after Doctor Strange, Moana and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” is a live-action re-telling of the studio’s animated classic which refashions the classic characters from the tale as old as time for a contemporary audience, staying true to the original music while updating the score with several new songs. “Beauty and the Beast” is the fantastic journey of Belle, a bright, beautiful and independent young woman who is taken prisoner by a beast in his castle. Despite her fears, she befriends the castle’s enchanted staff and learns to look beyond the Beast’s hideous exterior and realize the kind heart and soul of the true Prince within.
Beauty and the Beast is directed by Bill Condon and sees Emma Watson as Belle alongside Dan Stevens as Beast, while the cast also includes Ewan McGregor as Lumiere, Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts, Luke Evans as Gaston, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Plumette, Stanley Tucci as Cadenza, Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, Kevin Kline as Maurice, Josh Gad as Le Fou and Audra McDonald as Garderobe.
