What did you do this past weekend? Maybe you were one of the millions of people worldwide who went to catch Disney’s live action remake of the fabulous Beauty And The Beast. In its opening weekend alone, the Emma Watson-starrer managed to gross $170 million at the box office in the United States alone!
The only close competitor was 2016’s Finding Dory that was heavily promoted by talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who voiced the loveable, forgetful character. However, Beauty And The Beast is looking to break records in the upcoming weeks since its release. For insiders of Disney, they feel like the audience responded due to “nostalgia”. After all, the original animated movie was created in the early ’90s, and the remake has been done just in time for millennials to afford their own theatre tickets.
Beauty And The Beast took $160 million to re-create, including VFX that set the dazzling backdrop to the story of Belle and the Beast. Also, they roped in John Legend and Ariana Grande to contribute their voices for the title track. And Canadian music legend, Celine Dion also did her number.
Another reason Beauty And The Beast could be doing so well is because Disney tweaked the original story to involve, for the first time ever, a gay character. Gaston’s sidekick, LeFou has his moment towards the end of the movie, making this the first openly gay fairytale character ever! Though a theatre in Arkansas refused to screen the movie, the world, as a whole, loved that Disney is doing its best to be inclusive, even in a story that depicts an archaic time.
Beauty And The Beast is a popular fairytale about a young girl, Belle. In an attempt to save the life of her father, she gets imprisoned in the gloomy castle of an accursed prince. Shaped in the form of a Beast, he is surprisingly tender at heart. And the castle’s talking furniture must make Belle and the Beast realize their true love for each other, before the narcissistic Gaston ruins their love story forever.
