Disney’s Beauty and the Beast doesn’t open for another 11 days, however, Fandango today indicated that the live-action feature adaptation of the Oscar-winning 1991 animated pic is already beating the pre-sales of both Captain America: Civil War and Finding Dory.
Those two movies turned out to be last summer’s and Disney’s top titles in regards to openings and cumes: Civil War debuted to $179.1M and legged out to $408M, while Dory posted a first weekend of $135M and a final domestic total of $486.3M. On the high end, should Beauty and the Beast even touch Civil War‘s three-day, it will decimate March’s all-time opening record of $166M, which, since last year, belongs to Warner Bros.’ Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. The second and third highest openings for the third month of the year belong to 2012’s The Hunger Games ($152.5M) and 2010’s Alice in Wonderland ($116.1M).
Tracking on February 23 showed at least a $110M opening for the Bill Condon-directed musical. However, many non-Disney trackers believe Beauty is going to turn in a gorgeous $150M-plus three-day. Fandango’s latest pulse further supports this projection, not to mention Beauty owns a healthy Rotten Tomatoes score of 73% fresh off 48 reviews.
One record Beauty and the Beast will easily notch: the best opening for a musical on the big screen (the current record holder belongs to Disney’s High School Musical 3 which cleared a $42M first weekend in October 2008).
Given the fact that Beauty and the Beast is ahead of Dory in advance ticket sales, that makes the Emma Watson movie the fastest-selling family film in Fandango history.
Word out of exhibitors’ screenings is that theater owners are over the moon for Beauty and the Beast. The movie has already sold out hundreds of showtimes across the country.
In a Fandango moviegoer survey this year, Beauty and the Beast was listed as the third most anticipated film following Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
