In case you hadn't noticed, Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast was kind of a big deal. The movie started strong but after a month in theaters, it still hasn't faltered. This has led the movie to achieve a major box office milestone. Following yesterday's box office totals, Beauty and the Beast has officially crossed the $1 billion mark.
The film had been creeping closer and closer to the major milestone over the last few days so crossing the line was expected as long as the movie's existing momentum didn't fail. However, according to Collider, Disney has officially announced that as of yesterday Beauty and the Beast has officially brought in $1 billion at the global box office. Not bad, even with an estimated budget of $160 million that's some nice profit.
We're early in the year, and we haven't even hit the official "summer movie season" yet but it's going to be difficult for a lot of movies to catch Beauty and the Beast. Last year there were four movies that broke the $1 billion mark, all of them produced by Disney, but the thing is, Beauty and the Beast isn't done yet. After spending two weeks at number one at the domestic box office it has held steady at number 2 for the two weeks since. With The Fate of the Furious set to debut on Friday, it's likely that Beauty and the Beast will slide down the chart a bit, but with its global reach, the movie is going to continue to add millions of dollars for weeks to come. There are certainly other billion dollar contenders including films from Marvel Studios (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming) and Pixar (Cars 3), and clearly, you have your non-summer contenders likeStar Wars: The Last Jedi, but beating Beauty at the box office won't be easy for any of them.
In addition to being the highest grossing movie of the year, by a wide margin, it's also the highest-grossing musical ever and it had the biggest March opening of any movie ever, beating out last year's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Beauty and the Beast currently stands as the 29th highest grossing movie of all time, but now that it's hit $1 billion it will likely pass The Dark Knight at number 28, which just barely broke that milestone. It will be interesting to see just how far the movie can go. It still hasn't released in South Africa or Japan yet, so there are some audiences that still haven't even had a chance to see the film at all. They have the potential to boost that global box office just that much more.
Where do you think Beauty and the Beast will finish up its theatrical run? Do you think any movie will be able to outperform it at the box office? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
