'Beauty and the Beast' has grand showing at box office despite controversy
The tale as old as time has not shied away from controvery as the film has been restricted in Russia to not being shown at all in countries like Malaysia, but any press is good press as Beauty and the Beast had one of the greatest openings of all time.
Check out just how much it made below!
Read more: Op-ed—LeFou: Disney’s “first” gay character
For the last couple of weeks, all you've probably heard is news regarding Beauty and The Beast's gay involving LeFou. Director Bill Condon revealed the news to Attitude.
“LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston,” Condon said. “He’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realising that he has these feelings. And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it. And that’s what has its payoff at the end, which I don’t want to give away. But it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.”
Since then, there's been a firestorm of controversy with several different countries and even some theatres in the United States being completely against the moment.
The Russian Culture Ministry banned the new, live action Beauty And The Beast movie from children under the age of 16, after a petition by ultraconservative lawmaker Vitaly Milono that said the movie disseminates “overt and shameless propaganda of sin and sexual perversion under the guise of a fairy tale.”
It continued with the Film Censorship Board in Malaysia requesting Disney to cut the moment from the film completely. AOL explained how Malaysia’s government has laws against homosexuality and without the change, the movie would have a P13 rating. Billboard says that in the country, LGBT characters can only be depicted onscreen “as long as they show ‘repentance.’”
The controversy continued in the United States as the Henagar Drive-In in Henagar, AL decided not to show the film.
“We will not compromise on what the Bible teaches,” wrote the drive-in on Facebook, “You can feel free to come watch wholesome movies without worrying about sex, nudity, homosexuality and foul language.”
Despite all of this, Beauty and the Beast made $170 million in the US box office, along with an additional $180 million overseas. This huge opening sets multiple records for the musical, including being the biggest opening for a PG title ever, beating out Finding Dory, along with having the biggest March opening in box office history.
Disney is used to big openings, because why wouldn't you when you own both Marvel and Star Wars, but Beauty and the Beast now holds the record for the seventh largest opening in the United States.
Have you seen Beauty and the Beast yet? What'd you think?
