From the start, Beauty and the Beast was always going to bust monetary expectations. It started setting box office records just after its opening weekend, and shows no signs of slowing down.
Along the way, it's caused quite a bit of conversation. That includes questions about whether or not Beauty and the Beast is racist, the possibility that it could change minds about being anti-princess, and just questions in general.
Those questions, the conversations around the movie, or maybe that it's just that kind of good, have inspired a box office take that will soon pass $1 billion. If you'd like to see it with the zeros, that's $1,000,000,000. Nine of them.
"On Tuesday, Beauty, starring Emma Watson as Belle, grossed $9.7 million for a worldwide total of $993.2 million," The Hollywood Reporter writes. "The tentpole has earned $435.9 million domestically and $557.3 million overseas, led by China ($85.2 million) and the U.K. ($75.3 million). Disney has plenty of reason to celebrate. Beauty and the Beast is the second of its live-action updates to cross $1 billion after Alice in Wonderland. Moreover, Disney will lay claim to 14 of the 29 movies to earn $1 billion or more."
That's a giant amount of money. We can't say we're shocked: Emma Watson is a huge star and the movie is a competent update of a gigantic property. Watson is already slated to blast past a $15 million take for the film, which seems set to climb only higher.