Prior to its opening this Friday, Disney’s live-action movie Beauty and the Beast has already set a new record as Fandango’s number one family pre-seller of all time, with Beauty pre-sales (through Monday night) already eclipsing total pre-sales for any other family film in Fandango’s 17-year history.
Beauty is outpacing the previous family pre-seller champ, Finding Dory and superhero movies like Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice at the same point in the Fandango sales cycle. Beauty is also scoring a rare 99 out of 100 points on Fandango’s movie buzz indicator, Fanticipation, and is easily beating the monstrous March box office hits, Kong: Skull Island and Logan, in this weekend’s sales.
“The anticipation to see Emma Watson as Beauty is sky high,” said Fandango managing editor Erik Davis. “This weekend will see a perfect storm of family audiences, date night audiences and old and new friends gathering en masse at the multiplex to see one of the year’s most anticipated movies.”
According to a Fandango survey of more than 1,000 Beauty and the Beast moviegoers:
95 percent have seen the original animated classic; 68 percent own it at home.
84 percent have been Emma Watson fans since her Harry Potter days.
52 percent say the new songs by Alan Menken & Tim Rice increased their interest in the movie.
44 percent will see the movie with their families; 43 percent will see the film with a date, significant other or friend.
Fandango’s movie buzz indicator, Fanticipation, provides statistical insight into the movies fans are planning to see in a given weekend. Fanticipation scores (based on a 1 to 100-point scale) are calculated via an algorithm of Fandango’s advance ticket sales, website and mobile traffic, and social media engagement.
Fanticipation is not intended as a forecast of the weekend box office; it is a snapshot of movie fan sentiment.