Disney’s Beauty and the Beast premiered in Cinemas in Pakistan on the 18th of March, last Friday.
Smashing box office records in its opening there-day weekend, it has hit an unexpected $17o million according to industry estimates and is soaring high in the hearts and minds of people likewise, within the country.
“Harry Potter” veteran Emma Watson plays the role of a charming Belle to the frightening Beast portrayed by Dan Stevens of the leading “Downton Abbey” series, adapting a classic retake of the 1991 Disney fairy tale about a monstrous-looking prince and a young woman who fall in love.
Though Beauty and the Beast is nowhere as bad as the Twilight films parts 3 and 4, directed by the very same Bill Condon, I personally believe that it does bear a striking visual resemblance to the mediocre looking CGI of overrated teen movies.
Emma Watson is supposed to be the heart of the film, although doesn’t seem to be the right fit for Belle’s character, giving out the most stiff and forced performance ever seen in a movie. On the other hand, Beast’s face never looks convincing enough. With his lifeless CGI face, his presence seems almost similar to the unreal performance that Belle emanates, serving as an unforgivable and constant distraction that makes it really hard for the viewer to completely lose them self into this adaption.
Some of the production values, however, are majestically beautiful and certainly make you feel nostalgic about the animated classic in a good way. The songs were brought to life beautifully and pull us into a sea of visual effects that enlighten all our senses.
Beauty and the Beast has set a record for a March opening in North America, reported by Exhibitor Relations. The previous record was set last year, in 2016, by “Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice”, earning a total of $166 million.
Beauty and the Beast has recorded the seventh best opening overall in the United States and Canada. Costing a trivial sum of $300 million gone into filming and production, analysts estimate that it should easily reach profitability, with some claims already adding evidence to the fact that this latest Disney fairy tale may have already reached that point in worldwide sales.
The movie has overtaken the previous North American box-office leader, Warner Brothers’ “Kong: Skull Island”, that bagged a $110 million since its release.
In third place on North American screens was “Logan, earning a total of $184 million over three weeks.
Universal’s horror film “Get Out” (taking $133.1 million in four weeks) followed next, with Lionsgate’s “The Shack” ranking fifth at a three-week total of $42.6 million.
The remaining 5 movies in the top 10 round up as follows:
6) “The Lego Batman Movie” ($4.7 million)
7) “The Belko Experiment” ($4.0 million)
8) “Hidden Figures” ($1.5 million)
9) “John Wick: Chapter 2” ($1.2 million)
10) “Before I Fall” ($1.0 million)
