Beauty is a beast at the box office
LOS ANGELES — Disney’s Beauty and the Beast brought so many guests to movie theaters over last weekend that the live- action remake became the biggest box- office opener of 2017 so far, and the seventh- best debut of all time.
The film brought in an impressive $ 175 million, well above analyst expectations of $ 150 million. The picture also brought in $ 180 million internationally.
The picture, which cost $ 160 million to make, stars Emma Watson of the Harry Potter franchise as Belle and Dan Stevens ( Downton Abbey, Legion) as the cursed prince. The story stays fairly close to the beloved 1991 animated original, a box- office smash that became the first animated movie to earn a best picture Oscar nomination. Directed by Bill Condon, known for The Twilight Saga and the musical Dreamgirls, the new film is well on its way to following in its predecessor’s history- making footsteps.
Disney’s dusting off the oldies can be tough, but technology has become so advanced that live- action versions can do the originals justice in the eyes of some filmgoers and critics.
Such technology has helped catapult Beauty into Imax history books. The film got $ 21 million of its worldwide gross from Imax, a record for a PG- rated movie, surpassing Jungle Book’s $ 20 million.
The picture has all the makings of a hit that will continue to dominate the box office in the weeks to come. With the recent success of La La Land ( more than $ 417 million in worldwide sales), it proves that escapist song-and-dance fantasy still sells, even in countries that haven’t traditionally responded to the format.
Landing in second place in its second week was Warner Bros.’ Kong: Skull Island with $ 28 million. The film has pulled in $ 109 million to date. Fox’s Logan took third place in its third week. The latest in the X- Men franchise added about $ 18 million, for a domestic gross of $ 184 million.
The Jordan Peele-written-and-directed film Get Out, from Universal and Blumhouse Productions, pulled in $ 13.4 million in its fourth week, for a fourth- place finish. The social thriller has brought in more than $ 133 million in the United States alone. It began its international release last week, grossing $ 2.9 million from nine territories, including the United Kingdom.
In fifth place is Lionsgate’s The Shack, with $ 6 million, for a total of $ 42.5 million in sales in its third week.
The only other significant new release was BH Tilt’s The Belko Experiment, about 80 Americans forced into a violent social experiment in a corporate tower in Colombia. The horror film, which cost less than $ 5 million to make, grossed $ 4.1 million. It stars Tony Goldwyn, Michael Rooker and John McGinley and was directed by Greg McLean.
In limited release, Columbia’s T2: Trainspotting opened with $ 180,000 from five locations, a per theater average of $ 36,000. The sequel to 1996’ s Trainspotting, with a return in cast and Danny Boyle as director, has already succeeded in England, with $ 21 million, and has thus far taken in $ 34 million internationally.