‘Beauty and the Beast’ makes Disney history as it smashes the box office!

It seems Beauty And The Beast is the Belle of the box office this weekend.

Variety reports that the live-action Disney musical broke through $63.8 million on Friday from over 4,000 locations in the United States.

Its three-day estimate now stands at a potentially record-breaking $170 million, which could give it the largest opening of 2017 so far.

While the reimagined romantic classic, featuring Emma Watson and former Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens, might seem like the ultimate celebration of heterosexual love, it’s actually harbouring a treasure trove of gay secrets – and is set to make history with Disney’s first ever “exclusively gay moment” on film.

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

However, the “gay moment” led to controversy in several US states including Alabama where a drive-in cinema refused to show the film.

The film’s screening was canceled in Malaysia after Disney refused to censor the “gay moment” scene in the film featuring side character LeFou singing an admiring song to Gaston and dancing with another man.

Russia also banned anyone under 16 from seeing the film due to the “gay moment.” However, the new figures prove that the “gay moment” has no effect on the box office.

Disney has officially made history with its first on-screen “gay moment,” making this is a huge step for the LGBT community.

The new issue of Attitude sees the film’s leads Emma Watson and Dan Stevens discuss the underlying queer sensibility which helped make 1991’s cartoon iteration of Beauty and the Beast resonate so profoundly with many gay men.

The April issue of Attitude is out now. To buy in print click here, or subscribe at subscribeme.to/attitude.

To buy a digital copy, visit pocketmags.com/attitude.