‘Beauty And The Beast’ Dazzling With $169M+ Opening; Bound

UPDATE, FRIDAY PM: “There’s something cultural going on.” That’s just one remark from an exhibition chief today who’s floored by what’s looking like a $169 million-plus opening for Disney’s live-action take of Beauty And The Beast.  Some even believe it could hit $177M, but we’ll get a more definite grasp on that tomorrow. The wide spread stems from the immense amount of pre-sales, which beat Batman v. Superman on Fandango, as well as the anticipated amount of walk-up business.

Oh, Disney, what box office records are you set to break now? If Beauty And The Beast remains clicking, it should easily become the top opening for a March release and pre-summer opening, deafening Warner Bros’ Batman V. Superman ($166M). If it clicks past $169.1M, it will become Emma Watson’s highest opening of all time, besting the FSS of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – Part 2. Beauty is already beautiful for director Bill Condon, making it his biggest debut ever ahead of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 ($141M). On the domestic list of all-time openers, Disney will own six slots in the top ten thanks to Beauty. Should it grab $177M, then she’ll rank as the sixth-best opening of all-time under Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War ($179.1M) and above Iron Man 3 ($174.1M).

With an opening day of $65.3M, Beauty And The Beast ranks as the third-best first day for a March release after Batman V. Superman ($81.55M) and The Hunger Games ($67.3M). Then how is Beauty And The Beast primed to outstrip those films’ respective openings of $166M and $152.5M? Once again, it’s because of that walk-up business. Some industry estimates show Saturday even with Friday’s take which includes Thursday night’s $16.3M. There’s been reports on Twitter about long lines for Beauty And The Beast in the Star Wars sense of the word:

Also no surprise tonight: Beauty And The Beast earns an A CinemaScore, which is right in line with its grades for previous Disney live-action canon titles The Jungle Book, Cinderella and Maleficent. 

Beauty And The Beast is different from female-skewing predecessors like Hunger Games, in that it’s pulling in attendees who don’t always frequent the movies. How do we know this? Essentially, when there’s a majority of 2D business. In Beauty‘s case, 2D is repping at least 60% of all business. Those who don’t attend the cinema frequently will always go for 2D pricing, while the die-hards opt for Imax, PLF or 3D. Nonetheless, everyone is going to Beauty And The Beast from grandparents to the millennial girls who grew up with the property. That group between ages 18-34 account for close to 70% of Beauty‘s audience according to ComScore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak.

On CinemaScore, 72% females showed up tonight, with 55% 25 and up. The under-18 set, who gave the movie an A+, represented close to a third of the audience. Also giving Beauty a perfect score were the under-25 set at 45% and 18-24 (16%).

As most of the major studios lobby exhibition for an earlier premium streaming VOD window, which theater chains fear might step on theatrical, the PostTrak data on Friday had some interesting insights. When it comes to those who’ve just watched Beauty And The Beast, few prefer to buy or rent the movie digitally or on VOD. In fact, 24% prefer to watch the movie again in theaters, while 25% want to buy the movie on Blu-ray, and 23% want to own Beauty And The Beast on DVD. 10% said they’d buy it digitally, while 6% or lower said they’d respectively rent it digitally or buy/rent on VOD. Did you hear that Hollywood? When the industry has a blockbuster this big delivering on all fronts for a major studio and its exhibition partners, do we really want to pursue the discussion of an early PVOD window? The theatrical business is booming, especially with Kong: Skull Island overperforming last weekend.

At Netflix’s Los Gatos, CA headquarters today, Variety reports that CEO Reed Hastings said, “How did distribution innovate in the movie business in the last 30 years? Well, the popcorn tastes better, but that’s about it.” Perhaps Hastings needs to go see Beauty And The Beast in a Cinemark XD theater, or sit in one of the high-end leather luxury seats of the iPic chain that’s showing his upcoming movies Mudbound and The Discovery. Not everyone wants to watch movies on a 70-inch TV in their man-cave, rather with a community, on a huge screen with mindblowing sound that’s not going to wake the neighbors.

Whenever a major studio has a big hit like Beauty And The Beast, other major studios jump on the opportunity to trailer in front of it, promoting their wares. In addition, foot traffic isn’t ceasing for the competition: Warner Bros/Legendary’s Kong: Skull Island is down 57% for a second weekend of $26M, Fox’s Logan is down 56% for $16.7M and Universal/Blumhouse’s Get Out is still the sleeper at -38% in its fourth weekend with $12.8M. Blumhouse’s BH Tilt mircobudget release from Orion Pictures, The Belko Experiment, is also coming in sync with the top of its projections nearing $4M.

In the wake of the success of the 1994 Broadway stage show of Beauty And The Beast which grossed north of $1.4 billion worldwide, Disney continually kicked the tires on a film version. In a 2011 interview, the animated pic’s Oscar-winning composer and songwriter Alan Menken said that a big-screen version of the Broadway hit was canned. In the wake of the success of Universal’s 2012 Snow White And The Huntsmen, Disney apparently knocked around the idea of a more aggressive live-action version, from the Beast’s POV, but then  2013’s Frozen ($1.28 billion worldwide) happened, and it was clear, if the princess genre isn’t broke, don’t try to fix it.

Mandeville’s David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman boarded as producers in 2013. Condon would sign on in June 2014.  On January 26, 2015, Watson posted on social media, that she’s Belle. Watson was originally being considered for the lead role in La La Land, which Emma Stone wound up winning the best actress Oscar for. Watson also passed on Disney’s Cinderella, but embraced Belle. In interviews, the Harry Potter actress says she was drawn to Belle’s open-mindedness, sense of female empowerment, and her ability to defy the status-quo in her village.

Estimates as of late Friday night for March 17-19:

1.) Beauty and the Beast (Disney), 4,210 theaters  / $65.3M Fri. (includes $16.3M in previews) / 3-day: $169M-$177M /Wk 1

2.) Kong: Skull Island (20^th/Leg), 3,846 theaters (0)  / $7.36M Fri. (-63%) / 3-day: $26M (-57%)/Total: $107.9M/Wk 2

3.) Logan (Fox), 3,687 theaters  (-384)/ $4.7M Fri. (-54%) / 3-day: $16.7M (-56%)/Total: $183.3M/Wk 3

4.) Get Out (UNI), 2,979 theaters (-164) / $3.7M Fri. (-37%) / 3-day: $12.8M (-38%)/Total: $132.7M/Wk 4

5.) The Shack (LG), 2,825 theaters (-63) / $1.6M Fri. (-40%) / 3-day: $5.8M (-42%) /Total: $42.3M/Wk 3

6). The LEGO Batman Movie (WB), 2,735 theaters (-568) / $1.2M Fri. (-27%) / 3-day: $5.1M (-32%) / Total: $167.9M/Wk 6

7.) The Belko Experiment (BHT/ORN), 1,341 theaters  / $1.55M Fri. (includes $306K in previews) / 3-day: $3.77M /Wk 1

8.) Hidden Figures (FOX), 1,162 theaters (-259)/ $409K Fri. (-43%) / 3-day: $1.5M (-45%) / Total: $165.6M / Wk 13

9.) John Wick: Chapter 2(LGF), 1,065 theaters (-966) / $262K Fri. (-62%) / 3-day: $999K (-63%) / Total:$89.6M / Wk 6

10.) Before I Fall  (OR), 1,551 theaters (-795) / $242K Fri. (-74%) / 3-day: $766K (-74%)/Total: $11M/Wk 3

11.) Lion (TWC) 621 theaters (-339)/$173K (-49%)/3-day: $656K (-50%)/Total: $49.9M/Wk 17

NOTABLES:

T2 Trainspotting (Sony/Tri-Star), 5 theaters  / $45k Fri. /PTA: $26,3k/ 3-day: $132k/Wk 1

Personal Shopper (IFC), 22 theaters (+11)  / $23K Fri  (-18%)/PTA: $3k/ 3-day: $68K (-14%)/Total: $179K/ Wk 2

Raw (FOC), 9 theaters (+7)  / $14K Fri  (+60%)/PTA: $4,4k/ 3-day: $40K (+62%)/Total: $75K/ Wk 2

Song to Song (BG), 4 theaters  / $12K Fri. /PTA: $9,4K/ 3-day: $38k /Wk 1

UPDATE, FRIDAY NOON: Midday matinees. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is destined to land among March’s top openers of all-time with a current $165M-$175M projected weekend, off of what looks to be a $60M-$62M Friday. These are from non-Disney industry estimates.

Should Beauty and the Beast click past $166M, then they’ll steal the all-time March opening record from Warner Bros.’ Batman v. Superman, and the pic grosses upward of $169.19M, it will be Emma Watson’s highest opening of all-time. What does that mean? It means Beauty and the Beast smacked the record opening of a Harry Potter film, that is his last chapter Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. 

Getting Beauty and the Beast to these high numbers hinges on how much walk-up business we’ll see throughout this weekend. We were seeing lofty mid-day figures for Lego Batman a while ago on its first Friday afternoon, but the two things working in Beauty‘s favor are 26% K-12 schools off today with another 39% college, plus it’s a beloved generational legacy brand. There’s a lot of power in millennial females, and they grew up with Beauty and the Beast. Even if her opening slows down by $20M — it’s still an awesome debut.

One non-Disney marketing exec praised the studio’s positioning on Beauty and the Beast today saying, “Their strategy should be commended. They could have sold a family film and they sold it as a dramatic piece with some music rather than a childlike ‘Be Our Guest’ piece. It was really well done. It was some of what was done with the animated film while…

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