Beauty and the Beast breaks ticket pre-sales record

Disney’s live-action remake of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ is heading for a colossal opening haul, according to reports, racking up the most ticket pre-sales ever.

US ticket site Fandango is reporting that it’s sold more advance tickets to the Disney movie than any other in its 17-year history, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

That means its beaten the likes of ‘Captain America: Civil War’ and ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’, as well as comparative family fare like Disney’s ‘Finding Dory’.

Speaking of which, ‘Finding Dory’ is the movie ‘Beauty and the Beast’ needs to beat, currently holding the record for the biggest US debut weekend ever, making $135.1 million last year.

Forecasts are currently ranging for a debut between $120 million and $140 million in the US when the new beast is unleashed this weekend.

‘Harry Potter’s Emma Watson plays Belle in the movie, opposite ‘Downton Abbey’ Dan Stevens as the Beast, with Luke Evans, Josh Gad, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Kline and Emma Thompson are also on the bill.

To go along with the pre-sales hype, the movie has received decent – if not amazing – notices from the critics, currently sitting with a 67% approval rating on reviews aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.

It follows news that the movie is being pulled from release in Malaysia, after its film censorship board granted it a certificate, but only if a now much-discussed ‘gay moment’ was removed.

Disney told Bloomberg in a statement that ‘the film has not been and will not be cut for Malaysia.’

The scene, involving Josh Gad’s character Le Fou, who is gay in the movie, has also found the film being given a 16+ rating in Russia.

It debuts in the UK this weekend.

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