‘Beauty and the Beast’ could be Disney’s first $1 billion film of 2017
Heading into its opening weekend, Disney’s live-action remake of “Beauty and the Beast” has already broken records.
The movie garnered the most advanced ticket sales of any family film in Fandango’s history.
“It’s performing like a superhero movie,” Erik Davis, managing editor of Fandango, told CNBC, noting that it will likely have the biggest opening weekend of the year thus far.
Disney’s previous live-action remakes — “Maleficient,” ” The Jungle Book” and “Cinderella” — have done well at the box office, but “Beauty and the Beast” is expected to do even better.
Fandango’s Davis said that audiences are “hungry” for these types of films and it will be reflected in the ticket sales.
Disney seems to have hedged its bets, predicting the film will pull in about $120 million domestically over the weekend, but Paul Dergarabedian of ComScore thinks that figure is low. He said that “Beauty and the Beast” could rake in more than $150 million, which would make it one of the all-time highest-grossing March openings in the U.S.
Currently, “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” holds that title with an opening weekend gross of $166 million.
“This to me is a billion-dollar movie worldwide,” Dergarabedian said.
Last year, four Disney films passed the billion-dollar mark: “Captain America: Civil War,” “Finding Dory,” “Zootopia” and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”