With the record-breaking release of Disney’s latest live-action re-imagining, it seems necessary for us to turn our heads to the future of filmmaking and how it has been effected by 2017’s Beauty and the Beast. After releasing a teaser trailer to high acclaim and a record number of views in 24 hours, the hype has been quite surprising for the film’s release.
As it was discussed quite heavily in media in previous weeks, you are most likely well aware of the drama that has surrounded the film and its discussed topics. Including Disney’s first openly gay character, Beauty and the Beast caused social media to flurry with comments and opinions, whilst certain countries chose to not show the film due to their strong belief/’law’ against homosexuality.
This discussion simply means that the LGBT community will possibly continue to be represented in cinema, and eventually become quite a norm in the industry, which can already be seen in another March movie. Not only this, but the film changes the way fairytale-esque films will be produced in the future and how film companies will view the power of women at the box office. Not only is Beauty and the Beast reinventing a classic, but it’s also changing the industries and paving its future.
Making approximately $170 – 174 million dollars domestically in its opening weekend, Beauty and the Beast owns the 7th highest opening weekend of all time, dethroning Emma Watson’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 down to #8, and giving Disney six of the slots in the top ten. Clearly showing that the drama surrounding the movie in recent weeks has barely put a dint in the numbers, the film has also shown an important and interesting trend; women at the box office. According to sources, roughly 70% of the opening weekend audience members were female. This isn’t initially surprising, as many female-targeted films often have this statistic, but rarely to they reach the financial numbers this cinematic juggernaut is.
This plainly shows that woman can be a strong force in the box office when the right product is out there. Though not definite, it is highly likely that people in Hollywood and the rest of the industry
will soon attempt to create films that will appeal to the female demographic on a much larger, and possibly expensive, scale.
Not only will the targeted audience of movies start to slowly shift, but so will the choices of what films are actually made. The success of Beauty and the Beast continues Disney’s run of successful live-action remakes; including Maleficent, Cinderella and the Oscar-Winning The Jungle Book, and makes it almost definite that their future adaptations will succeed, with Mulan, The Jungle Book 2 and The Lion King currently in pre-production.
This arguably signals the end of fairytale animations, and welcomes the beginning of a new age of live-action fairytale-esque films to surely be released in the coming years.The new age in the blockbuster, fairytale industry is upon us!
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