Beauty And The Beast starring Emma Watson reaches top of weekend box amid COVID-19 pandemic

Beauty And The Beast reached the top of the weekend box office again amid the coronavirus pandemic three years after its original release.

The reissue by Disney of the 2017 live-action musical romantic fantasy starring Emma Watson, 30, as Belle earned an estimated $467,000 at 527 locations, according to an article by Deadline.

The Marvel Studios  superhero film Iron Man [2008] starring Robert Downey Jr, 55, finished in second with $430,000 for the Disney title at 462 venues.

Beauty And The Beast also ranked number one at the box office its opening weekend when it earned $174.7 million in March 2017.

The film by director Bill Condon, 64, stills hold the March record for best US opening ever and its cumulative lifetime earnings have reached an estimated $504.5 million.

The bulk of film grosses over the weekend were from drive-ins since AMC, Regal and Cinemark closed months ago due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Disney has been releasing certain titles for weekend release and the Empire Strikes Back was number one last weekend followed by Black Panther.

The leading drive-ins over the weekend were the Fort Wyoming in Dearborn, Michigan; Cine-Drive in Saint Eustache, Quebec; the Mission Tiki 4 in Montclair, California; the Van Buren 3 in Riverside, California; and the Starlight 4 in Atlanta. 

Bohemian Rhapsody, Jurassic Park and Goonies rounded out the top five films over the weekend.

They were followed by Relic, Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Most Wanted and Jaws. 

Warner Bros Pictures announced Monday that it was indefinitely removing spy film Tenet by director Christopher Nolan, 49, from its release schedule after its release was delayed three times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Tenet stars John David Washington, 35, as an operative of the organization known as Tenet tasked with preventing World War III.

The film also stars Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine and Kenneth Branagh as a Russian oligarch who communes with the future.