Walt Disney Pictures‘ Beauty and the Beast opened to an impressive $16.3 million at Thursday evening preview screenings! The figure is the third-largest preview gross for the month of March, trailing just Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice‘s $27.7 million and The Hunger Games‘ $19.7 million. Those films opened to $166 million and $152 million at the domestic box office, respectively. It’s also the biggest Thursday previews opening ever for a Disney live-action film and the second-biggest for a PG film. Beauty and the Beast also grossed $11.5 million internationally already.
Directed by Bill Condon, Beauty and the Beast stars Emma Watson as Belle, Dan Stevens as the Beast, Luke Evans as Gaston, Kevin Kline as Maurice, Josh Gad as Lefou, Ewan McGregor as Lumière, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Plumette, Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, Stanley Tucci as Cadenza, Audra McDonald as Garderobe, and Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts.
Beauty and the Beast offers a live-action re-telling of the studio’s animated classic, refashioning the characters from the tale as old as time for a contemporary audience and staying true to the original music while updating the score with several new songs. Beauty and the Beast is the fantastic journey of Belle, a bright, beautiful and independent young woman who is taken prisoner by a beast in his castle. Despite her fears, she befriends the castle’s enchanted staff and learns to look beyond the Beast’s hideous exterior and realize the kind heart and soul of the true Prince within.
Based on the 1991 animated film, Beauty and the Beast is produced by Mandeville Films’ David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman with eight-time Oscar-winning composer Alan Menken, who won two Academy Awards (Best Original Score and Best Song) for the 1991 animated film, providing the score, which will include new recordings of the original songs written by Menken and Howard Ashman, as well as several new songs written by Menken and three-time Oscar winner Tim Rice.
