Beauty of the Disney business model

MICHAEL CAVNA

WASHINGTON: As I sat watching Beauty and the Beast (out in SA on April 13) in a packed theatre last weekend with transfixed fans of all ages, one thought kept recurring: how soon till Disney begins offering a direct-deposit service for our pay cheques?

Seven years into its system of rolling out live-action adaptations of its animated classics, Disney has the machinery in place to crank out these eminently bankable conversions at an accelerated pace.

The latest success story is now Beauty and the Beast, which grossed a head-turning $170 million (R1.9 billion) in its US debut, according to studio estimates.

That represents the seventh-biggest opening ever when not adjusting for inflation, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. Counting its Star Wars and Marvel Studios films, Disney now owns six of the seven largest-ever US debuts.

That total also represents the biggest March opening ever, topping last year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($166m).

Disney kicked off this entire template in 2010 with another liveaction adapted film that pointed to the high profitability of March: Alice in Wonderland, which opened to $116.1m.

Tim Burton’s Alice went on to gross $1.025 billion worldwide. The film’s success prompted Disney to open its cartoon vaults wide for live- action adaptations and reimaginings, including Maleficent ($ 759m worldwide), Cinderella ($544m worldwide) and last year’s The Jungle Book, which not only had a massive $967m global gross, but also featured Oscar-winning CGI effects.

The new Beauty’s reception should only boost Disney’s confidence as it plans to release adaptations of such animated smashes as Dumbo (now in pre-production with Burton back at the helm), The Lion King (with Jungle Book’s Jon Favreau directing) and Mulan (Niki Caro directing). A new take on Aladdin has been in the pipeline, while freshly minted Oscar winner Emma Stone is aboard Cruella for a 2018 release. – Washington Post