Disney's 'Beauty and the Beast' will probably break a box office record

Although Beauty and the Beast won’t open for another week, it’s doing monster business in ticket pre-sales, and has already beat out Finding Dory to become the fastest-selling family film in history, according to Fandango, the online ticket retailer.

Fandango managing editor Erik Davis told Mashable:

With hundreds of showtimes already sold out, it's clear Disney is poised to have another hit on its hands with the new live-action Beauty and the Beast. Its presales rival that of a superhero movie, with it outpacing films like Captain America: Civil War at the same point in the sales cycle, two weekends prior to release. Beauty and the Beast is already looking to be bigger than other live-action Disney adaptations like The Jungle Book, Cinderella, and Maleficent, and it's currently the fastest-selling family film in Fandango history, topping previous record-holder Finding Dory. Needless to say, it's going to be a beast at the box office.

That Beauty and the Beast is doing better than Captain America: Civil War is no small feat, considering the Marvel movie opened to $179.1 million last May and went on to rake in $1.1 billion worldwide. If Beast stays on par with the superhero sequel through its debut weekend, it’ll become the biggest March opening of all time. (The previous record was set last year by Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which landed with $166 million.)

Finding Dory, meanwhile, opened to $135 million last June and took in $1 billion over the course of its box office run. If Beauty and the Beast lands closer to that ballpark, it'll still be the third-highest March premiere ever, just behind The Hunger Games ($152.5 million) and just ahead of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland ($116 million).

In either case, Beauty and the Beast looks poised to surpass the $120 million bow projected by tracking services last month. Since then, the film has enjoyed some added buzz in the form of largely positive reviews praising its nostalgic appeal and eye-popping splendor.

Beauty and the Beast’s mammoth box office numbers are the latest bit of evidence that Disney has struck gold with its live-action remakes. Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland kickstarted this informal franchise in 2010, and Maleficent, Cinderella, and The Jungle Book have kept the cash rolling in over the past few years.

Eventually, one assumes, Disney will either start to stumble or simply run out of attractive properties to adapt. But if Beauty and the Beast is any indication, audiences are still under the studio's spell for the time being.