document_title: Beauty and the Beast (2017 film)

question_text: who plays beast in the live action beauty and the beast

text: Beauty and the Beast (2017 film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: A beautiful enchantress disguised as an old beggar woman arrives at a castle during a ball and offers the host, a cruel and selfish prince, a rose in return for shelter from a storm. When he refuses, she reveals her identity. To punish the prince for his lack of compassion, the enchantress transforms him into a beast and his servants into household objects, then erases the castle, the prince and his servants from the memories of their loved ones. She casts a spell on the rose and warns the prince that the curse will only be broken if he learns to love another, and earn their love in return, before the last petal falls.

text: Some years later, in the small town of Villeneuve, Belle, the book-loving daughter of a music box maker and artist Maurice, dreams of adventure and brushes off advances from Gaston, an arrogant former soldier. On his way to a convention and lost in the forest, Maurice seeks refuge in the Beast's castle, but the Beast imprisons him for stealing a rose from his garden as a gift to Belle. When Maurice's horse returns without him, Belle ventures out in search for him, and finds him locked in the castle dungeon. The Beast agrees to let her take Maurice's place.

text: Belle befriends the castle's servants, who invite her to a spectacular dinner. When she wanders into the forbidden west wing and finds the rose, the Beast scares her into the woods. She is ambushed by a pack of wolves, but the Beast rescues her, and is injured in the process. As Belle nurses his wounds, a friendship develops between them. The Beast shows Belle a gift from the enchantress, a book that transports readers wherever they want. Belle uses the book to visit her childhood home in Paris, where she discovers a plague doctor mask and realizes that she and her father were forced to leave when her mother succumbed to the plague.

text: In Villeneuve, Gaston sees rescuing Belle as an opportunity to win her hand in marriage, and agrees to help Maurice. When Maurice learns of his ulterior motive and rejects him, Gaston abandons him to be eaten by the wolves. Maurice is rescued by the hermit Agathe, but when he tells the townsfolk of Gaston's crime but is unable to provide solid evidence, Gaston convinces them to send Maurice to an insane asylum.

text: After sharing a romantic dance with the Beast, Belle discovers her father's predicament using a magic mirror. The Beast releases her to save Maurice, giving her the mirror to remember him with. At Villeneuve, Belle reveals the Beast in the mirror to the townsfolk, proving her father's sanity. Realizing that Belle loves the Beast, a jealous Gaston claims she has been charmed by dark magic, and has her thrown into the asylum carriage with her father. He rallies the villagers to follow him to the castle to slay the Beast before he curses the whole village. Maurice and Belle escape, and Belle rushes back to the castle.

text: During the battle, Gaston abandons his companion LeFou, who then sides with the servants to fend off the villagers. Gaston attacks the Beast in his tower, who is too depressed to fight back, but regains his spirit upon seeing Belle return. He defeats Gaston, but spares his life before reuniting with Belle. Ungrateful and unrepentant, Gaston fatally shoots the Beast from a bridge, but it collapses when the castle crumbles, and he falls to his death. The Beast dies as the last petal falls, and the servants become inanimate. As Belle tearfully professes her love to the Beast, Agathe reveals herself as the enchantress and undoes the curse, repairing the crumbling castle, and restoring the Beast's and servants' human forms and the villagers' memories. The Prince and Belle host a ball for the kingdom, where they dance happily.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Emma Watson as Belle, a young benevolent bibliophile woman who develops feelings for the Beast and begins to see the humanity within him.

Daisy Duczmal portrays an infant Belle.

Dan Stevens as Beast, a cold-hearted, selfish, unkind prince who is transformed into a beast and forced to earn back his humanity by learning to truly love and be loved in return, as well as to give rather than take. Stevens portrays the character through motion-capture.[12][13]

Adam Mitchell[1] portrays the younger version of the prince.

Luke Evans as Gaston, a narcissistic and arrogant hunter and veteran of the French Royal Army who is willing to go as far as it takes to have Belle as his trophy wife.
Kevin Kline as Maurice, Belle's protective widowed father who works as a music box maker and an artist.[14]

Jolyon Coy portrays the young Maurice.

Josh Gad as LeFou, Gaston's flamboyant and long-suffering sidekick who bolsters his friend's ego but gets very little in return.[15]
Ewan McGregor as Lumière, the Beast's charismatic bouteiller who has been transformed into a candelabra.[16]
Stanley Tucci as Maestro Cadenza, the neurotic court composer and Madame de Garderobe's husband who has been transformed into a harpsichord.[17]
Audra McDonald as Madame de Garderobe, a world-renowned opera singer and Cadenza's wife who has been transformed into a wardrobe.[18]
Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Plumette, one of the castle maids and Lumière's lover who has been transformed into a feather duster.[19]
Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, the Beast's gruff but loyal majordomo and the head of the household staff who has been transformed into a mantel clock.[20]
Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts, the castle's motherly head housekeeper who has been transformed into a teapot.[14]
Hattie Morahan as Agathe, an impoverished hermit and resident of Villeneuve who, in reality, is the enchantress responsible for cursing the Prince.[21] Morahan also narrates the prologue.

Rita Davies portrays the enchantress in her beggar woman form. The film was released posthumously after Davies' death.

Nathan Mack as Chip, Mrs. Potts' plucky son who has been transformed into a teacup.[22]
Adrian Schiller as Monsieur D'Arque, the sly warden of the local asylum who is bribed by Gaston to have Maurice institutionalized.[21]
Gerard Horan as Monsieur Jean Potts, an absent-minded potter and resident of Villeneuve who is later revealed to be Mrs. Potts' husband and Chip's father.
Haydn Gwynne as Clothilde, a fishmonger and resident of Villeneuve who is later revealed to be Cogsworth's wife.
Michael Jibson as the Tavern Keeper, the owner and keeper of Villeneuve's local tavern where Gaston and the village residents drink.
Ray Fearon as Père Robert, Villeneuve's local chaplain who encourages Belle to borrow the books in the chapel's meager library.
Sophie Reid, Rafaëlle Cohen, and Carla Nella as the Village Lasses, a trio of women who fawn over Gaston and have a jealousy for Belle.
Jimmy Johnston, Dean Street, and Alexis Loizon as Tom, Dick, and Stanley, a trio of men who serve as Gaston's henchmen.
Zoe Rainey as Belle's mother, Maurice's late wife who contracted the plague and died when Belle was an infant.
Clive Rowe as Cuisinier, the castle's head chef who has been transformed into a stove.
Gizmo as Frou-Frou, Maestro Cadenza's and Madame de Garderobe's pet Yorkshire Terrier who has been transformed into a footstool.
Thomas Padden as Chapeau, the prince's valet who has been transformed into a coat rack.
Tom Turner[2] as The King, the prince's father who, following his wife's death, raised his son to be just as selfish and arrogant as he was.
Harriet Jones as The Queen, the prince's mother who died of an illness when he was a child.
Dale Branston as Villeneuve's residential baker.
Chris Andrew Mellon as Nasty Headmaster, the unnamed headmaster of an all boys school in Villeneuve that disapproves of Belle teaching a young girl how to read.
Vivian Parry as the Village Lass' mother, an unnamed seamstress.

tag: ul

text: Cast notes[edit]

text: ^ In the initial theatrical release, Mitchell was miscredited as Rudi Gooman in the cast, but listed under his real name in the soundtrack credits

text: ^ In the initial theatrical release, Turner is miscredited as Henry Garrett in the cast.[23]

text: Stephen Merchant also appeared in the film as Monsieur Toilette, a servant who was turned into a toilet. This character was cut from the film, but is featured in the deleted scenes.[24]

text: Production[edit]

text: Development[edit]

text: Previously, Disney had begun work on a film adaptation of the 1994 Broadway musical.[25][26] However, in a 2011 interview, composer Alan Menken stated the planned film version of the Beauty and the Beast stage musical "was canned".[27]

text: By April 2014, Walt Disney Pictures had already begun developing a new live-action version of Beauty and the Beast after making other live-action fantasy films such as Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent, Cinderella and The Jungle Book.[28] In June 2014, Bill Condon was signed to direct the film from a script by Evan Spiliotopoulos.[29] Later in September of that same year, Stephen Chbosky (who had previously directed Watson in The Perks of Being a Wallflower) was hired to re-write the script.[30]

text: Before Condon was hired to direct the film, Disney approached him with a proposal to remake the film in a more radical way as Universal Studios had remade Snow White and the Huntsman (2012). Condon later explained that "after Frozen opened, the studio saw that there was this big international audience for an old-school-musical approach. But initially, they said, 'We're interested in a musical to a degree, but only half full of songs.' My interest was taking that film and doing it in this new medium—live-action—as a full-on musical movie. So I backed out for a minute, and they came back and said, 'No, no, no, we get it, let's pursue it that way.'"[31] Walt Disney Pictures president of production Sean Bailey credited Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan F. Horn with the decision to make the film as a musical: "We worked on this for five or six years, and for 18 months to two years, Beauty was a serious dramatic project, and the scripts were written to reflect that. It wasn't a musical at that time. But we just couldn't get it to click and it was Alan Horn who championed the idea of owning the Disney of it all. We realized there was a competitive advantage in the songs. What is wrong with making adults feel like kids again?"[32]

text: Casting[edit]

text: In January 2015, Emma Watson announced that she would be starring as Belle, the female lead.[33] She was the first choice of Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan F. Horn, as he had previously overseen Warner Bros. which released the eight Harry Potter films that co-starred Watson as Hermione Granger.[32] Two months later, Luke Evans and Dan Stevens were revealed to be in talks to play Gaston and the Beast respectively,[34][35] and Watson confirmed their casting the following day through tweets.[12][36] The rest of the principal cast, including Josh Gad, Emma Thompson, Kevin Kline, Audra McDonald, Ian McKellen, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Ewan McGregor and Stanley Tucci were announced between March and April to play LeFou, Mrs. Potts, Maurice, Madame de Garderobe, Cogsworth, Plumette, Lumière and Cadenza, respectively.[15][14][18][20][19][16][17][37]

text: Susan Egan, who originated the role of Belle on Broadway, commented on the casting of Watson as "perfect".[38] Paige O'Hara, who voiced Belle in the original animated film and its sequels, offered to help Watson with her singing lessons.[39]

text: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Emma Watson was reportedly paid $3 million upfront, together with an agreement that her final take-home pay could rise as high as $15 million if the film generated gross box office income similar to Maleficent's $759 million worldwide gross.[40]

text: Filming[edit]

text: Principal photography on the film began at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, United Kingdom, on May 18, 2015.[14][41][42] Filming with the principal actors concluded on August 21.[43][44] Six days later, co-producer Jack Morrissey confirmed that the film had officially wrapped production.[45]

text: The Beast was portrayed with a "more traditional motion capture puppeteering for the body and the physical orientation", where actor Dan Stevens was "in a forty-pound gray suit on stilts for much of the film". The facial capture for the Beast was done separately in order to "communicate the subtleties of the human face" and "[capture the] thought that occurs to him" which gets "through [to] the eyes, which are the last human element in the Beast." The castle servants who are transformed into household objects were created with CGI animation.[7]

text: Before the release of the film, Bill Condon refilmed one certain sequence in the "Days of the Sun" number, due to confusion among test audiences caused by actress Harriet Jones, who looked similar to Hattie Morahan, who portrayed Agathe. In the original version of the scene, it was Jones's character, the Prince's mother, who sings the first verse of the song, with Rudi Goodman playing the young Prince and Henry Garrett playing his father; but in the reshot version of the scene, the singing part is given to the Prince (now played by Adam Mitchell). The King was also recast to Tom Turner, although Harriet Jones was still the Queen, albeit with dark hair. Both Goodman and Garrett's names were mistakenly featured in the original theatrical release's credits, but was later corrected in home releases.[23]

text: Music[edit]

text: When released in 1991, Beauty and the Beast, marked a turning point for Walt Disney Pictures by appealing to millions of fans with its Oscar-winning musical score by lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken. In Bill Condon's opinion, that original score was the key reason he agreed to direct a live-action version of the movie. "That score had more to reveal", he says, "You look at the songs and there's not a clunker in the group. In fact, Frank Rich described it as the best Broadway musical of 1991. The animated version was already darker and more modern than the previous Disney fairytales. Take that vision, put it into a new medium, make it a radical reinvention, something not just for the stage because it's not just being literal, now other elements come into play. It's not just having real actors do it".[46]

text: Condon initially prepared on only drawing inspiration from the original film, but he also planned to include most of the songs composed by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman and Tim Rice from the Broadway musical, with the intention of making the film as a "straight-forward, live-action, large-budget movie musical".[47] Menken returned to score the film's music, which features songs from the original film by him and Howard Ashman, plus new material written by Menken and Tim Rice.[48] Menken said the film will not include songs that were written for the Broadway musical and instead, created four new songs.[49] However, an instrumental version of the song "Home", which was written for the musical, is used during the scene where Belle first enters her room in the castle.[50]

text: On January 19, 2017, it was confirmed by both Disney and Céline Dion—singer of the original 1991 "Beauty and the Beast" duet song, with singer Peabo Bryson—that Dion would be performing one of the new original songs "How Does a Moment Last Forever" to play over the end titles.[51] She originally had doubts about whether or not to record the song due to the recent death of her husband and manager René Angélil, who had previously helped her secure the 1991 pop duet. While ultimately accepting the opportunity, she said: "[The] first Beauty and the Beast decision was made with my husband. Now I'm making decisions on my own. It's a little bit harder. I couldn't say yes right away, because I felt like I was kind of cheating in a way". She eventually felt compelled to record the song because of the impact Beauty and the Beast has had on her career. According to Dion, "I was at the beginning of my career, it put me on the map, it put me where I am today". Also, Josh Groban was announced to be performing the new original song "Evermore" on January 26, 2017.[52][53][54][55]

text: The 2017 film features a remake of the 1991 original song recorded as a duet by Ariana Grande and John Legend.[56][57] Grande and Legend's updated version of the title song is faithful to the original, Grammy-winning duet, performed by Céline Dion and Peabo Bryson for the 1991 Disney film.[58] Disney debuted the music video for Ariana Grande and John Legend's interpretation of the title song on Freeform television network on March 5, 2017, and it has since been viewed over 100 million views on the Vevo video-hosting service.[59]

text: Emma Thompson also performed a rendition of the title song, which was performed by Angela Lansbury in the original 1991 animated film.[59]

text: Release[edit]

text: On March 16, 2015, Disney announced the film would be released in 3D on March 17, 2017.[14] The first official presentation of the film took place at Disney's three-day D23 Expo in August 2015.[60]

text: The world premiere of Beauty and the Beast took place at Spencer House in London, United Kingdom on February 23, 2017;[61] and the film later premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California, on March 2, 2017. The stream was broadcast onto YouTube.

text: A sing along version of the film released in over 1,200 US theaters nationwide on April 7, 2017.[62] The United Kingdom received the same version on April 21, 2017.[63]

text: The film was re-released in New York and Los Angeles for a one-week engagement starting December 1, 2017. The move is an awards push as awards season heats up.[64]

text: Marketing[edit]

text: Disney spent around $140 million to market the film worldwide.[65] Following an announcement on May 22, 2016,[66] Disney premiered the first official teaser trailer on Good Morning America the next day.[67] In its first 24 hours, the teaser trailer reached 91.8 million views, which was the largest number ever seen for a trailer in that amount of time.[68] This record has since been broken by Thor: Ragnarok,[69] It and Avengers: Infinity War.[70][71] The first official teaser poster was released on July 7, 2016.[72] On November 2, 2016, Entertainment Weekly debuted the first official image on the cover of their magazine, along with nine new photos.[73][74] One week later, Emma Watson and Disney debuted a new poster.[75] On November 14, 2016, the first theatrical trailer was released, again on Good Morning America.[76] This reached 127.6 million views in its first 24 hours, setting a new record for the most views in one day, beating Fifty Shades Darker;[77] this record has since been broken by The Fate of the Furious.[78] A TV spot with Watson singing was shown during the 74th Golden Globe Awards.[79] Disney released the final trailer on January 30, 2017.[80]

text: Home media[edit]

text: Beauty and the Beast was released on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD on June 6, 2017.[81] The film debuted at No. 1 on the NPD VideoScan overall disc sales chart, with all other titles in the top 20, collectively, selling only 40% as many units as Beauty and the Beast.[82] The movie regained the top spot on the national home video sales charts during its third week of release.[83] The movie became available on Netflix on September 19, 2017.

text: Reception[edit]

text: Box office[edit]

text: Beauty and the Beast grossed $504 million in the United States and Canada and $759.5 million in other countries for a worldwide gross of $1.263 billion.[5] With a production budget of $160 million, it is the most expensive musical ever made, or the second-most expensive musical ever made if accounting for inflation; only Hello, Dolly! (1969) with a budget of $25 million ($165 million in 2016 dollars) cost more.[4] In just ten days, it became the highest-grossing live-action musical of all time, beating the nine-year-old record held by Mamma Mia!. It is currently the second-biggest musical ever overall, behind Disney's Frozen (2013).[85] Worldwide, the film proved to be a global phenomenon, earning a total of $357 million over its four-day opening weekend from 56 markets. Critics said the film was playing like superhero movies amongst women. It was the second-biggest March global opening, behind only Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the thirteenth-biggest worldwide opening ever and the seventh-biggest for Disney.[86] This includes $21 million from IMAX plays on 1,026 screens, a new record for an IMAX PG title.[87] It surpassed the entire lifetime total of the original film in just six days.[88][89]

text: Beauty and the Beast was the 300th digitally remastered release in IMAX company's history, which began with the re-release of Apollo 13 in 2002. Its robust global debut helped push the company past $6 billion for the first time,[90] and led to analysts believing that the film had a shot of passing $1 billion worldwide from theatrical earnings.[91][92][93][94] On April 12, it passed the $1 billion threshold, becoming the first film of 2017, the fourteenth Disney film, and the twenty-ninth film overall to pass the mark. It became the first film since Rogue One (also a Disney property) in December 2016 to make over a billion dollars, and did so on its 29th day of release.[95][96][97] It is currently the second-highest-grossing film of 2017 (behind Star Wars: The Last Jedi),[98] the highest-grossing March release,[99] the highest-grossing remake of all time,[100] and the sixth-biggest Disney film.[101] Even after inflation adjusted, it is still ahead of the $425 million gross ($760 million in 2017 dollars) of the original film.[100] Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $414.7 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues, making it the second-most profitable release of 2017.[102]

text: United States and Canada[edit]

text: In the United States and Canada, Beauty and the Beast topped Fandango's pre-sales and became the fastest-selling family film in the company's history, topping the studio's own animated film Finding Dory released the previous year. Early tracking had the film grossing around $100 million in its opening weekend, with some publications predicting it could reach $130 million.[103][104][105] By the time the film's release was 10 days away, analysts raised projections to as high as $150 million.[106][107] It earned $16.3 million from Thursday previews night, marking the biggest of 2017 (breaking Logan's record), the biggest ever for a Disney live-action film (breaking Maleficent's record), the second-biggest ever for both a G- or PG-rated film (behind the sixth Harry Potter film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which also starred Watson), and the third-biggest ever in the month of March (behind Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and The Hunger Games).[108] An estimated 41% of the gross came from IMAX, 3D and premium large format screenings which began at 6 pm, while the rest—59%—came from regular 2D shows which began at 7 pm.[109] The numbers were considered more impressive given that the film played during a school week.[110]

text: On its opening day, the film made $63.8 million from 4,210 theaters across 9,200 screens, marking the third biggest in the month of March, trailing behind Batman v Superman ($81.5 million) and The Hunger Games ($67 million).[111][112] It was also the biggest opening day ever for a film that wasn't PG-13, displacing the $58 million opening Wednesday of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Its opening day alone (which includes Thursday's previews) almost matched the entire opening weekend of previous Disney live-action films, Maleficent ($69.4 million) and Cinderella ($67.9 million).[113] Unlike all previous four Disney live-action films witnessing a hike on their second day, Saturday, Beauty and the Beast actually fell 2% but, nevertheless, the dip was paltry, and the grosses are so much bigger compared to the other titles.[90] Earning a total of $174.8 million on its opening weekend, it defied all expectations and went on to set numerous notable records.[114] This includes the biggest opening of the year as well as the biggest for the month of March and pre-summer/spring opening, beating Batman v Superman,[115][116] the biggest start ever for a PG title (also for a family film), surpassing Finding Dory,[117] the biggest debut of all time for a female-fueled film, ahead of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,[118] the biggest for a Disney live-action adaptation, ahead of Alice in Wonderland[118] and the biggest musical debut ever, supplanting Pitch Perfect 2. Furthermore, it is also Watson's highest-opening, beating Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 same with Emma Thompson, director Bill Condon's biggest debut ever ahead of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 and the biggest outside of summer, save for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, not accounting for inflation.[114]

text: It became the forty-third film to debut with over $100 million and the fifteenth film to open above $150 million. Its three-day opening alone surpassed the entire original North American run of the first film ($146 million; before the 3D re-release), instantly becoming the second-biggest film of the year, behind Logan ($184 million), and also the second-highest-grossing musical, behind Grease's $188 million cumulative gross in 1978.[119] Seventy percent of the total ticket sales came from 2D showings signifying that people who don't go to theaters frequently came out in bulk to watch the film. About 26% of the remaining tickets were for 3D. IMAX accounted for 7% ($12.5 million) of the total weekend's gross, setting a new record for a PG title, ahead of Alice in Wonderland ($12.1 million) while PLF repped 11% of the box office.[90] Seventy percent of the film's opening day demographic was female, dropping to 60% through the weekend.[118] According polling service PostTrak, about 84 percent of American parents who saw the film on its opening day said they would "definitely" recommend it for families.[120][121] The film's opening was credited to positive word of mouth from audiences, good reviews from critics, effective marketing which sold the title not just as a family film but also as a romantic drama, the cast's star power (especially Emma Watson), lack of competition, being the first family film since The Lego Batman Movie a month earlier, nostalgia, and the success and ubiquity of the first film and Disney's brand.[120][121]

text: On Monday, its fourth day of release, the film fell precipitously by 72% earning $13.5 million. The steep fall was due to a limited marketplace where only 11% K-12 and 15% colleges were off per ComScore. Nevertheless, it is the second-biggest March Monday, behind Batman v Superman ($15 million).[122] This was followed by the biggest March and pre-summer Tuesday with $17.8 million, a 32% increase from its previous day. The same day, the film passed $200 million in ticket sales.[123] It earned $228.6 million in the first week of release, the sixth-biggest seven-day gross of all time.[124] In its second weekend, the film continued to maintain the top positioning and fell gradually by 48% earning another $90.4 million to register the fourth-biggest second weekend of all time, and the third-biggest for Disney.[125] In terms of percentage drop, its 48% decline is the third-smallest drop for any film opening above $125 million (behind Finding Dory and The Force Awakens).[85] The hold was notable considering how the film was able to fend off three new wide releases: Power Rangers, Life, and CHiPs.[126] As a result, it passed the $300 million threshold becoming the first film of 2017 the pass said mark.[127] The film grossed $45.4 million in its third weekend, finally being overtaken for the top spot by newcomer The Boss Baby ($50.2 million).[128] On April 4, 2017, its nineteenth day of release, it passed the $400 million threshold becoming the first film of 2017 to do so.[129] By its fourth weekend, the film began was playing in 3,969 cinemas, a fall of 241 theaters from its previous weekend. Of those, approximately 1,200 cinemas were sing-along versions. It earned $26.3 million (−48%) and retained second place. By comparison, previous Disney films Moana (−8%) and Frozen (−2%) both witnessed mild percentage declines the weekend their sing-alone versions were released.[130] Its seventh weekend of release was in contemporaneous with another Emma Watson-starring new film The Circle.[131] That weekend, The Circle was number four, while Beauty and the Beast was at number six.[132] By May 28, the film had earned over $500 million in ticket sales becoming the first film of 2017 (until it was later surpassed by The Last Jedi),[133][134] the third female-fueled film (after The Force Awakens and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story followed by Wonder Woman and The Last Jedi) and the eighth overall film in cinematic history to pass the mark.[135][136][137][138]

text: It has already become the biggest March release, dethroning The Hunger Games (2012),[139] the biggest musical film (both animated and live-action),[140] as well as the biggest film of 2017 (alongside The Last Jedi).[141]

text: Other countries[edit]

text: Outside the US and Canada, the film began playing on Thursday, March 16, 2017. Through Sunday, March 19, it had a total international opening of $182.3 million from 55 markets, 44 of which were major territories, far exceeding initial estimations of $100 million and opened at No. 1 in virtually all markets except Vietnam, Turkey, and India. Its launch is the second-biggest for the month of March, behind Batman v Superman ($256.5 million). In IMAX, it recorded the biggest debut for a PG-rated title (although it carried varying certificate amongst different markets) with $8.5 million from 649 screens, the second-biggest for a PG title behind The Jungle Book.[142] In its second weekend, it fell just by 35% earning another $120.6 million and maintaining its first position hold. It added major markets like France and Australia.[143] It topped the international box office for three consecutive weekends[144] before finally being dethroned by Ghost in the Shell and The Boss Baby in its fourth weekend. Despite the fall, the film helped Disney push past the $1 billion thresold internationally for the first time in 2017.[145][97]

text: It scored the biggest opening day of the year in Hong Kong and the Philippines, the biggest March Thursday in Italy ($1 million, also the biggest Disney Thursday debut), the biggest March opening day in Austria, and the second-biggest in Germany ($1.1 million), Disney's biggest March in Denmark, the biggest Disney live-action debut in China ($12.6 million), the UK ($6.2 million), Mexico ($2.4 million) and Brazil ($1.8 million) and the third-biggest in South Korea with $1.2 million, behind only Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.[146][147] In terms of opening weekend, the largest debut came from China ($44.8 million), followed by the UK ($24.3 million), Korea ($11.8 million), Mexico ($11.8 million), Australia ($11.1 million), Brazil ($11 million), Germany ($10.7 million), France ($8.4 million), Italy ($7.6 million), Philippines ($6.3 million), Russia ($6 million), and Spain ($5.8 million).[142][143]

text: In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the film recorded the biggest opening ever for a PG-rated film, the biggest Disney live-action opening of all time, the biggest March opening weekend, the biggest opening for a musical (ahead of 2012's Les Misérables), the number one opening of 2017 to date and the fifth-biggest-ever overall with £19.7 million ($24.5 million) from 639 theatres and almost twice that of The Jungle Book (£9.9 million).[148] This included the second-biggest Saturday ever (£7.9 million), only behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[149] It witnessed a decline in its second weekend, earning £12.33 million ($15.4 million). Though the film was falling at a faster rate than The Jungle Book, it had already surpassed the said film and its second weekend is the third-biggest ever (behind the two James Bond films Skyfall (2012) and Spectre).[150][143] In India, despite facing heavy competitions from four new Hindi releases, two Tamils films and a Malayalam and a Punjabi release, the film managed to take an occupancy of 15% on its opening day, an impressive feat despite tremendous competitions.[151][152][153] It earned around ₹15 million (US$230,000) nett on its opening day from an estimated 600 screens which is more than the three Hindi releases—Machine, Trapped, and Aa Gaya Hero—combined.[154] Disney reported a total of ₹92.6 million (US$1.4 million) gross for its opening weekend there. It was ahead of all new releases and second overall behind Bollywood film Badrinath Ki Dulhania.[155][156][157] In Russia, despite receiving a restrictive 16 rating, the film managed to deliver a very successful opening with $6 million.[158]

text: In China, expectations were high for the film. The release date was announced on January 24, giving Disney and local distributor China Film Group Corporation ample time—around two months—to market the film nationwide. The release date was strategically chosen to coincide with White Day. Preliminary reports suggested that it could open to $40–60 million in its opening weekend. Largely driven by young women, its opening day pre-sales outpaced that of The Jungle Book.[159] The original film was, however, never widely popular in the country.[160] Although China has occasionally blocked gay-themed content from streaming video services, in this case, Chinese censors decided to leave the gay scene intact. According to local box office tracker Ent Group, the film grossed an estimated $12.1 million on its opening day (Friday), representing 70% of the total receipts. Including previews, it made a total of $14.5 million from 100,000 screenings, which is 43% of all screenings in the country.[161] It climbed to $18.5 million on Saturday (102,700 showings) for a three-day total of $42.6 million, securing 60% of the total marketplace. Disney on the other hand reported a different figure of $44.8 million.[162][163] Either ways, it recorded the second-biggest opening for a Disney live-action film,[160] with $3.4 million coming from 386 IMAX screens.[142] Japan—a huge Disney market—served as the film's final market and opened there on April 21.[143] It debuted with a better-than-expected $12.5 million on its opening weekend helping the film push past the $1.1 billion threshold. An estimated $1.1 million came from IMAX screenings, the fourth-biggest ever in the country.[164][165] The two-day gross was $9.7 million, outstripping Frozen's previous record of $9.5 million.[166] Due to positive reviews, good word-of-mouth and benefitting from the Golden Week, the film saw a 9% increase on its second weekend. The hold was strong enough to fend off newcomer The Fate of the Furious from securing the top spot. The total there is now over $98 million after seven weekends[167][168][169] and is the biggest film release of the year and, overall, the eleventh-biggest of all time.[170] It topped the box office there for eight consecutive weekends.[171][172]

text: The only markets where the film did not top the weekend charts were Vietnam (behind Kong: Skull Island), Turkey (with two local movies and Logan ahead) and India (where Badrinath Ki Dulhania retained No. 1).[142] It topped the box office for four straight weekends in Germany, Korea, Austria, Finland, Poland, Portugal, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Switzerland and the UK (exclusive of previews).[145][173] In the Philippines, it emerged as the most successful commercial film of all time—both local and foreign—with over $13.5 million.[174] In just five weeks, the film became one of the top 10 highest-grossing film of all time in the United Kingdom and Ireland, ahead of all but one Harry Potter film (Deathly Hallows – Part 2) and all three The Lord of the Rings movies (which also starred Ian McKellen).[175] It is currently the eighth-biggest grosser with £70.1 million ($90 million), overtaking Mamma Mia! to become the biggest musical production ever there.[164][176] The biggest international earning markets following the UK are Japan ($108 million), China ($85.8 million), Brazil ($41.5 million), Korea ($37.5 million), and Australia ($35 million).[171] In Europe alone, the cumulative total is $267 million to become the second-highest-grossing film in the past year (behind Rogue One: A Star Wars Story).[164][167][177]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: Beauty and the Beast received generally positive reviews, with praise for its ensemble cast, visuals, production values, musical score, songs, and faithfulness to the original film with a few elements of the Broadway musical version, while the designs of the Beast and the servants' household object forms received mixed reviews.[10][11] On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, as of April, 2018, the film had an approval rating of 70% based on 319 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's critical consensus read, "With an enchanting cast, beautifully crafted songs, and a painterly eye for detail, Beauty and the Beast offers a faithful yet fresh retelling that honors its beloved source material."[178] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 65 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[179] In CinemaScore polls, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[180][181]

text: Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "It's a Michelin-triple-starred master class in patisserie skills that transforms the cinematic equivalent of a sugar rush into a kind of crystal-meth-like narcotic high that lasts about two hours." Felperin also praised the performances of Watson and Kline as well the special effects, costume designs and the sets while commended the inclusion of Gad's character of LeFou as the first LGBT character in Disney.[182] Owen Gleiberman of Variety, in his positive review of the film, wrote: "It's a lovingly crafted movie, and in many ways a good one, but before that it's an enraptured piece of old-is-new nostalgia." Gleiberman compared Steven's character of the Beast to a royal version of the titular character in The Elephant Man and the 1946 version of the Beast in Jean Cocteau's original adaptation.[183] A. O. Scott of The New York Times praised the performances of both Watson and Stevens, and wrote: "It looks good, moves gracefully and leaves a clean and invigorating aftertaste. I almost didn't recognize the flavor: I think the name for it is joy."[184]

text: Likewise, The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday complimented Watson's performance, describing it as "alert and solemn" while noting her singing ability as "serviceable enough to get the job done".[185] Richard Roeper of Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film three and a half stars, lauded the performances of Watson and Thompson which he drew a comparison to Paige O'Hara's and Angela Lansbury's performances in the 1991 animated version while appreciating the performances of the other cast and also pointing out on its usage of the combination of motion capture and CGI technology as a big advantage which he stated: "Almost overwhelmingly lavish, beautifully staged and performed with exquisite timing and grace by the outstanding cast".[186] Mike Ryan of Uproxx praised the cast, production design and the new songs while noting the film doesn't try anything different, saying: "There's certainly nothing that new about this version of Beauty and the Beast (well, except it isn't a cartoon anymore), but it's a good recreation of a classic animated film that should leave most die-hards satisfied."[187] In her A- review, Nancy Churnin of The Dallas Morning News praised the film's emotional and thematic depth, remarking: "There's an emotional authenticity in director Bill Condon's live-action Beauty and the Beast film that helps you rediscover Disney's beloved 1991 animated film and 1994 stage show in fresh, stirring ways."[188] James Berardinelli of ReelViews described the 2017 version as "enthralling".[189]

text: Brian Truitt of USA Today commended the performances of Evans, Gad, McGregor and Thompson alongside Condon's affinity with musicals, the production design, visual effects featured in some of the song numbers including new songs made by the composers Alan Menken and Tim Rice, particularly Evermore which he described the new song with a potential for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.[190] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film three out of four stars which he deemed it as an "exhilarating gift" while he remarked that "Beauty and the Beast does justice to Disney's animated classic, even if some of the magic is M.I.A (Missing in Action)".[191] Stephanie Zacharek of Time magazine gave a positive review with a description as "Wild, Vivid and Crazy-Beautiful" as she wrote "Nearly everything about Beauty and the Beast is larger than life, to the point that watching it can be a little overwhelming." and added that "it's loaded with feeling, almost like a brash interpretive dance expressing the passion and elation little girls (and some boys, too) must have felt upon seeing the earlier version."[192] The San Francisco Chronicle's Mick LaSalle struck an affirmative tone, calling it one of the joys of 2017, stating that "Beauty and the Beast creates an air of enchantment from its first moments, one that lingers and builds and takes on qualities of warmth and generosity as it goes along" while referring the film as "beautiful" and also praised the film for its emotional and psychological tone as well Steven's motion capture performance.[193]

text: Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph gave the film four stars out of five and wrote that "It dazzles on this chocolate box of a picture that feels almost greedy yet to make this film work, down to a sugar-rush finale to grasp the nettle and make an out-an-out, bells-and-whistles musical" while he praised the performances of Watson, McKellen, Thompson, McGregor, Evans and Gad.[194] Mark Hughes of Forbes also similarly praised the film which he wrote that "it could revive the story in a faithful but entirely new and unique way elevating the material beyond expectations, establishing itself as a cinematic equal to the original" and also complimented the importance of undertaking a renowned yet problematic masterpiece as well addressing changes in the elements of the story while acknowledging the film's effectiveness in resonating to the audiences.[195] Stephen Whitty of the New York Daily News called it "this year's best new old musical" and "the most magical thing of all" while describing Watson's performance of Belle as "breakthrough".[196]

text: Several critics regarded the film as inferior to its 1991 animated predecessor. David Sims of The Atlantic wrote that the 2017 film "feels particularly egregious, in part, because it's so slavishly devoted to the original; every time it falls short of its predecessor (which is quite often), it's hard not to notice".[197] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune said that the 2017 film "takes our knowledge and our interest in the material for granted. It zips from one number to another, throwing a ton of frenetically edited eye candy at the screen, charmlessly." Phillips wrote that the film featured some "less conspicuously talented" performers who are "stuck doing karaoke, or motion-capture work of middling quality", though he praised Kline's performance as the "best, sweetest thing in the movie; he brings a sense of calm, droll authority".[198] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian praised Watson's performance and wrote that the film was "lit in that fascinatingly artificial honey-glow light, and it runs smoothly on rails—the kind of rails that bring in and out the stage sets for the lucrative Broadway touring version." In the same newspaper, Wendy Ide criticized the film as "ornate to the point of desperation" in its attempt to emulate the animated film.[199][200]

text: Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B-, writing that while the film looks "exceptionally great", he said the new songs were "not transporting". He felt the film needed more life and depth, but praised Watson's and Steven's performances as the "film's stronger elements".[201] Dana Schwartz of The New York Observer felt that some of the characters, such as Gaston and the Beast, had been watered down from the 1991 film, and that the additional backstory elements failed to "advance the plot or theme in any meaningful way" while adding considerable bloat. Schwartz considered the singing of the cast to be adequate but felt that their voices should have been dubbed over, especially for the complex songs.[202]

text: Accolades[edit]

text:
Award
Date of ceremony
Category
Recipient(s) and nominee(s)
Result
Ref.

Academy Awards
March 4, 2018
Best Production Design
Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer
Nominated
[203]

Best Costume Design
Jacqueline Durran
Nominated

Art Directors Guild Awards
January 27, 2018
Excellence in Production Design for a Fantasy Film
Sarah Greenwood
Nominated
[204]

British Academy Film Awards
February 18, 2018
Best Production Design
Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer
Nominated
[205]

Best Costume Design
Jacqueline Durran
Nominated

Casting Society of America
January 18, 2018
Big Budget – Comedy
Lucy Bevan, Bernard Telsey and Tiffany Little Canfield
Nominated
[206]

Chicago Film Critics Association
December 12, 2017
Best Art Direction
Sarah Greenwood
Nominated
[207]
[208]

Costume Designers Guild Awards
February 20, 2018
Excellence in Fantasy Film
Jacqueline Durran
Nominated
[209]

Critics' Choice Movie Awards
January 11, 2018
Best Art Direction
Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer
Nominated
[210]

Best Costume Design
Jacqueline Durran
Nominated

Best Hair & Makeup
Beauty and the Beast
Nominated

Best Song
"Evermore"
Nominated

Empire Awards
March 18, 2018
Best Actress
Emma Watson
Nominated
[211]
[212]

Best Soundtrack
Beauty and the Beast
Nominated

Best Make-up And Hairstyling
Won

Golden Trailer Awards
June 6, 2017
Best Animation/Family
Nominated
[213]

Best Original Score
Nominated

Best Animation/Family TV Spot
Nominated

Best Fantasy Adventure TV Spot
Nominated

Guild of Music Supervisors Awards
February 8, 2018
Best Music Supervision for Film: Budgeted Over 25 Million Dollars
Sullivan, MattMatt Sullivan
Nominated
[214]

Hollywood Film Awards
November 5, 2017
Costume Design Award
Jacqueline Durran[a]
Won
[215]

Make-Up & Hair Styling Award
Jenny Shircore
Won

Hollywood Music in Media Awards
November 16, 2017
Best Original Song – Animated Film
"How Does a Moment Last Forever" – Alan Menken and Tim Rice
Nominated
[216]
[217]

Best Original Song – Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror Film
Won

"Evermore" – Alan Menken and Tim Rice
Nominated

Best Soundtrack Album
Beauty and the Beast
Nominated

Hollywood Post Alliance
Outstanding Color Grading – Feature Film
Stefan Sonnenfeld
Nominated
[218]
[219]

Outstanding Visual Effects – Feature Film
Kyle McCulloch, Glen Pratt, Richard Hoover, Dale Newton, Neil Weatherley and Framestore
Nominated

Houston Film Critics Society
January 6, 2018
Best Original Song
"Evermore" – Alan Menken and Tim Rice
Nominated
[220]

Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild
February 24, 2018
Feature Motion Picture: Best Period and/or Character Hair
Jenny Shircore, Marc Pilcher and Charlotte Hayward
Nominated
[221]

MTV Movie & TV Awards
May 7, 2017
Movie of the Year
Beauty and the Beast
Won
[222]

Best Actor in a Movie
Emma Watson
Won

Best Kiss
Emma Watson and Dan Stevens
Nominated

Best Duo
Josh Gad and Luke Evans
Nominated

NAACP Image Awards
January 15, 2018
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
Audra McDonald
Nominated
[223]

Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards
March 24, 2018
Favorite Movie
Beauty and the Beast
Nominated
[224]

Favorite Movie Actress
Emma Watson
Nominated

Publicists Guild Awards
March 2, 2018
Motion Picture
Beauty and the Beast
Nominated
[225]
[226]

San Diego Film Critics Society
December 11, 2017
Best Production Design
Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer
Nominated
[227]
[228]

Best Visual Effects
Beauty and the Beast
Runner-up[b]

Best Costume Design
Jacqueline Durran
Won[c]

Best Use of Music
Beauty and the Beast
Nominated

Satellite Awards
February 10, 2018
Best Costume Design
Jacqueline Durran
Nominated
[229]

Saturn Awards
June 2018
Best Fantasy Film
Beauty and the Beast
Pending
[230]

Best Actress
Emma Watson
Pending

Best Production Design
Sarah Greenwood
Pending

Best Costume Design
Jacqueline Durran
Pending

Seattle Film Critics Society
December 18, 2017
Best Costume Design
Jacqueline Durran
Nominated
[231]
[232]

St. Louis Film Critics Association
December 17, 2017
Best Production Design
Sarah Greenwood
Nominated
[233]

Best Visual Effects
Beauty and the Beast
Nominated

Teen Choice Awards
August 13, 2017
Choice Movie: Fantasy
Won
[234]
[235]

Choice Movie: Fantasy Actor
Dan Stevens
Nominated

Choice Movie: Fantasy Actress
Emma Watson
Won

Choice Movie Villain
Luke Evans
Won

Choice Movie Ship
Emma Watson and Dan Stevens
Won

Choice Liplock
Won

Choice Scene Stealer
Josh Gad
Nominated

Choice Hissy Fit
Luke Evans
Nominated

Dan Stevens
Nominated

Visual Effects Society Awards
February 13, 2018
Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal Project
Shannon Justison, Casey Schatz, Neil Weatherley and Claire Michaud for "Be Our Guest"
Nominated
[236]

Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association
December 8, 2017
Best Motion Capture Performance
Dan Stevens
Nominated
[237]

Best Production Design
Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer
Nominated

Women Film Critics Circle
December 17, 2017
Best Family Film
Beauty and the Beast
Nominated
[238]
[239]

tag: table

text: Controversies[edit]

text: Gay character[edit]

text: Controversy erupted after director Bill Condon said there was a "gay moment" in the film, when LeFou briefly waltzes with Stanley, one of Gaston's friends.[240] Afterwards in an interview with Vulture.com, Condon stated, "Can I just say, I'm sort of sick of this. Because you've seen the movie—it's such a tiny thing, and it's been overblown." Condon also added that Beauty and the Beast features much more diversity than just the highly talked-about LeFou: "That was so important. We have interracial couples—this is a celebration of everybody's individuality, and that's what’s exciting about it.”[241] GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis praised the move stating, "It is a small moment in the film, but it is a huge leap forward for the film industry."[242]

text: In Russia, Vitaly Milonov agitated the culture minister for banning the film,[243] but instead it was given a 16+ rating (children under the age of 16 can only be admitted to see it in theaters with accompanying adults).[244] Additionally, a theater in Henagar, Alabama did not screen the film because of the subplot.[245] In Malaysia, the Film Censorship Board insisted the "gay moment" scene be cut, prompting an indefinite postponement of its release by Disney, followed by their decision to withdraw it completely if it could not be released uncensored.[246][247][248] The studio moved the release date to March 30, to allow more time for Malaysia's censor board to make a decision on whether or not to release the film without changes.[249] The distributors and producers then submitted an appeal to the Film Appeal Committee of Malaysia, which allowed the film to be released without any cuts and a P13 rating on the grounds that the "gay element" was minor and did not affect the positive elements featured in the film.[250][251] In Kuwait, the movie was withdrawn from cinemas by National Cinema Company which owns most of the cinemas in the country. A board member of the company stated that the Ministry of Information's censorship department had requested it to stop its screening and edit it for things deemed offensive by it.[252]

text: The film also received criticism over its portrayal of LeFou, as many felt that it relied on stereotypes[253] and was used as a way of teasing LGBT+ viewers without providing adequate representation.[254] LeFou's status as a sidekick to the main villain brought about criticism over Disney's queercoding of villains in the past, and his infatuation with Gaston was seen as relying on a stereotype of gay men being predatory towards straight men.[255] Furthermore, the only gay interaction LeFou has is a three-second clip of him dancing with another man at the end of the film. Many saw this as Disney cheating its LGBT+ audiences.[256]

text: Belle and the Beast's relationship[edit]

text: Disney has sought to portray Belle as an empowered young woman,[257] but a debate questioning whether it is possible for a captor to fall in love with their prisoner, and whether this is a problematic theme, has resulted.[258] As was the case with the original animated film, one argument is that Belle suffers from Stockholm syndrome (a condition that causes hostages to develop a psychological alliance with their captors as a survival strategy during captivity). Emma Watson studied whether Belle is trapped in an abusive relationship with the Beast before signing on and concluded that she does not think the criticism fits this version of the folk tale.[259][260] Watson described Stockholm Syndrome as "where a prisoner will take on the characteristics of and fall in love with the captor. Belle actively argues and disagrees with [Beast] constantly. She has none of the characteristics of someone with Stockholm Syndrome because she keeps her independence, she keeps that freedom of thought", also adding that Belle defiantly "gives as good as she gets" before forming a friendship and romance with the Beast.[261]

text: Psychiatrist Frank Ochberg, who coined the term "Stockholm syndrome", said he does not think Belle exhibits the trauma symptoms of prisoners suffering from the syndrome because she does not go through a period of feeling that she is going to die.[262] Some therapists, while acknowledging that the pairing's relationship does not meet the clinical definition of Stockholm syndrome, argue that the relationship depicted is dysfunctional and abusive and does not model healthy romantic relationships for young viewers.[263][264] Constance Grady of Vox writes that Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's Beauty and the Beast was a fairy tale originally written to prepare young girls in 18th-century France for arranged marriages, and that the power disparity is amplified in the Disney version.[265] Anna Menta of Elite Daily argued that the Beast does not apologize to Belle for imprisoning, hurting, or manipulating her, and his treatment of Belle is not painted as wrong.[266]

text: Notes[edit]

text:
Jump up ^ Also credited for Darkest Hour.
Jump up ^ Tied with Dunkirk.
Jump up ^ Tied with Mark Bridges for Phantom Thread.

tag: ol


document_title: Diversity Immigrant Visa

question_text: when did the u.s. create a lottery system for immigration

root

text: Diversity Immigrant Visa

text: History

text: Legislative and administrative history

text: Starting in 1986, the United States established several temporary immigrant visa programs outside of the usual immigration preferences (family members or by employment). The first program was NP-5, run from 1987–89, where a limited number of visas was issued on a first-come, first-served basis. The second program was OP-1, run through a lottery from 1989–91 and available for natives of countries with low levels of recent immigration to the United States.[1][2] The third program, AA-1, from 1992–94, was available for natives from a select group of countries that had been "adversely affected" by earlier immigration laws. Intentionally and in practice, people from Ireland and Northern Ireland benefited disproportionately from these programs. They were also known as the Donnelly, Berman and Morrison visas, respectively, after the sponsoring congressmen.[3] The Government of Ireland has actively supported the various lottery bills and similar legislation since their inception.[4]

tag: p

text: The Donnelly visa benefited "several thousand Irish" (almost 4,000) and the Berman visa had some 500 Irish beneficiaries.[5] Under the three-year Morrison program (1992–94), by far the largest in size, those born in Ireland or Northern Ireland received a set-aside of 40% of all diversity visas, for a total of 48,000 set aside visas out of 120,000. Natives or citizens of Poland, via the sheer volume of applicants, received the second largest number of visas. The United Kingdom came in a distant third with some 6,000 visas in the Morrison program, the last in which natives of the United Kingdom or its territories (except Hong Kong and Northern Ireland) were eligible to participate.[6][7][8][9]

text: The Immigration Act of 1990 was passed with bipartisan support and signed by President George H. W. Bush.[10] The legislation established the current and permanent Diversity Visa (DV) program, where 55,000 immigrant visas (later reduced to 50,000) are available in an annual lottery. The lottery aims to diversify the immigrant population in the United States, by selecting applicants mostly from countries with low numbers of immigrants to the United States in the previous five years.[9] Starting in fiscal year 1999, 5,000 of the visas from the DV program are reserved for use by the NACARA program, so the number of immigrant visas available in the lottery was reduced to 50,000.[11]

text: The first DV lottery, for fiscal year 1995, was named DV-1.[12] For fiscal years 1996 to 1999, the name was in the format DV-YY, where YY was the last two digits of the year.[13][14][15][16] Since fiscal year 2000 the lotteries have been named in the format DV-YYYY, with the full year number.[17] The year in the name refers to the fiscal year when the immigrant visas will be given, which starts in October of the previous calendar year, and the entry period for the lottery occurs almost a year earlier. Therefore, there is a two-year difference between the lottery name and its entry period. For example, for DV-2017 (fiscal year starting in October 2016), the entry period was in 2015.[18]

text: Initially, the DV lottery was administered entirely by mail, and only winners were notified. The entry form moved to an online system starting in DV-2005, but still only winners were notified, by mail.[6] Starting in DV-2010, all applicants are able to verify online whether they were selected.[19] Notification of winners also by mail continued until DV-2011, but since DV-2012 it is done exclusively online.[20]

text: Criticism and repeal efforts

text: Criticism of the program has focused on instances of fraud, racism[21] and the random nature of the lottery, as well as criminal or terrorist actions perpetrated by certain lottery winners.[22][23]

text: In 2002, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, an Egyptian immigrant who maintained residency in United States through his wife's diversity visa,[24] killed two people and injured four others at Los Angeles International Airport.[25][26][27] This led to criticism of the lottery as a security threat.[28][29]

text: Several attempts have been made to eliminate the lottery. In December 2005, the United States House of Representatives voted 273–148 to add an amendment to the border enforcement bill H.R. 4437 abolishing the DV. Opponents of the lottery said it was susceptible to fraud and was a way for terrorists to enter the country. The Senate never passed the bill. In March 2007, Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) introduced H.R. 1430, which would eliminate the Diversity Visa program. In June 2007, the U.S. House passed H.R. 2764 to eliminate funding for the program, and the Senate did likewise in September.[30]

text: However, the final version of this bill with amendments, signed into law on December 26, 2007, did not include the removal of funds for the program. Although H.R. 2764 was an appropriation bill and could only cut funds for the lottery during one fiscal year, this was the first time that both the House and the Senate passed a bill to halt the Diversity Visa program.H.R. 2764

text: Rep. Goodlatte reintroduced his Security and Fairness Enhancement for America Act (formerly H.R. 1430, now H.R. 2305) on May 7, 2009. The bill would have amended the Immigration and Nationality Act to eliminate the diversity immigrant program completely, but did not pass. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) introduced the Save America Comprehensive Immigration Act of 2009 (H.R. 264) on January 7, 2009. The bill would have doubled the number of diversity visas available to 110,000 yearly. This bill did not pass.[31] Had it passed, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 would have abolished the program in fiscal year 2015.[clarification needed] A comprehensive analysis of DV lottery issues was prepared in 2011 by Congressional Research Service.[32]

text: In 2013, the so-called "Gang of Eight" - a bi-partisan group of eight United States Senators - introduced a bill that would have comprehensively reformed the immigration system. The bill would have repealed the Diversity Immigrant Visa program.[10][33] The legislation passed the Senate, but was defeated in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives amid Republican opposition.[10]

text: In 2017, Sayfullo Habibullaevich Saipov, who had immigrated from Uzbekistan on a diversity visa in 2010, killed eight and injured eleven when he drove his truck down a bike path in Lower Manhattan.[34][35] In response, President Donald Trump, who had earlier called for a return to a "merit-based" immigration system,[36][37] called for an end to the program.[38][39] Following Trump's call to end the program, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, indicated that diversity visa lottery recipients lack thorough vetting, something Politifact rated as false, noting that all recipients of the visa undergo background checks, security screenings, and interviews by consular officers before arrival in the U.S.[40]

text: Process

text: Requirements

text: To enter the lottery, applicants must have been born in an eligible country. If selected, to qualify for the immigrant visa, they must have completed at least a high school education or at least two years of work experience in an occupation which requires at least two other years of training or experience.[18] They must also satisfy general immigration requirements, such as means of support, no criminal background, and good health.

text: Eligibility is determined by the applicant's country of birth, with two exceptions: the applicant may claim the spouse's country of birth instead if desired, or a parent's country of birth if neither parent was born in the applicant's country of birth and did not legally reside there when the applicant was born. The applicant's country of residence or nationality is irrelevant to the lottery.[18]

text: Each year, the Department of State publishes new instructions for applicants.[41][42]

text: Geographical distribution

text: The visas are distributed among six regions: Africa, Asia, Europe (Turkey, Cyprus and all countries in the former Soviet Union are allocated to Europe, even though some of them are geographically entirely in Asia), Latin America (Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America), North America (consisting only of Canada and the Bahamas), and Oceania.[18][43][44]

text: Dependent territories are treated as part of their respective sovereign countries, and disputed territories are allocated as recognized by the United States. For example, Bermuda is treated as part of the United Kingdom under Europe, the Gaza Strip is considered part of Egypt under Africa, and the West Bank is considered part of Jordan under Asia. However, there are some exceptions: Northern Ireland, Hong Kong and Taiwan are treated as separate countries, and Macau is considered part of Portugal under Europe (even after its sovereignty returned to China in 1999).[18]

text: Each region that sent more than one sixth of the total number of immigrants to the United States in the previous five years is considered a "high-admission region" (currently Latin America and Asia), and each region that sent less than one sixth is a "low-admission region" (currently North America, Europe, Africa and Oceania). The proportion of diversity visas given to the low-admission group is set as the proportion of recent immigrants from the high-admission group (currently about 80%),[45] and vice versa. Among regions of the same group, the diversity visas are allocated proportionally to their population, excluding ineligible countries (those that sent more than 50,000 immigrants in the previous five years).[43]

text: Within each region, the visas are not allocated among individual countries. All applicants from the same region are selected randomly as a whole, for the number of visas allocated for that region, but with the limitation that no single country may receive more than 7% of the total diversity visas (3,500).[18]

text: Although only 50,000 diversity visas are available each year, the lottery selects about 100,000 applicants. The reason for the larger selection is to ensure that all 50,000 diversity visas are eventually given each year, as some applicants are expected to fail general immigration requirements or may decide to withdraw and not to continue the process. As a result, some lottery winners who have received notifications might not obtain visas.[46]

text: It is also possible that some visas remain available after all initially selected applicants are reviewed. In this case, additional applicants are selected later. For this reason, applicants who were not initially selected in the lottery should keep checking their status online periodically, until the end of the respective fiscal year.[47]

text: Ineligible countries

text: Those born in any territory that has sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the previous five years are not eligible to receive a diversity visa. For DV-2019 (the most recent lottery, with entry period in 2017), natives of the following nations are ineligible: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom and its dependent territories (except Northern Ireland), and Vietnam.[48]

text: Exemptions

text: The term 50,000 "immigrants" refers only to people who immigrated via the family-sponsored, employment, or immediate relatives of U.S. citizen categories, and does not include other categories such as refugees, asylum seekers, NACARA beneficiaries, or previous diversity immigrants. For this reason that Cuba, Iraq, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Iran, Nepal, Guatemala, Egypt and Ecuador are not on the ineligible list as of 2017, despite sending over 50,000 immigrants in the previous five years.[49] Northern Ireland, due to lobbying by Irish Americans, has a special exemption, as does Hong Kong, with those born in either jurisdiction being eligible to enter the lottery despite both China and the United Kingdom being ineligible.

text: Changes

text: The first program was in fiscal year 1995, and the following 12 countries were ineligible from the start: Canada, China (mainland), Dominican Republic, El Salvador, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, United Kingdom and its dependent territories (except Northern Ireland and Hong Kong), and Vietnam.[50] Since then, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, Nigeria, Pakistan and Peru have been added to the ineligible list and are currently on it, Taiwan has been removed from it, and Ecuador, Guatemala, Poland and Russia have all been both on and off the ineligible list, reflecting shifting levels of immigration from these countries.

text: Macau was ineligible as part of China only for DV-2002, whose entry period (October 2000) was after the transfer of sovereignty of Macau from Portugal to China (December 1999) but before enactment of the Macau Policy Act (December 2000), which specified that U.S. law would treat Macau as it did before the transfer.[51]

text: Of the eight most populous countries in the world, all are ineligible except Indonesia. Of the next 11 most populous countries, eight are eligible, of which six are among the heaviest users of the lottery (Russia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran and Turkey); each of these countries was assigned close to the maximum possible ~4,500 openings for DV-2018 (along with Albania, Nepal, Ukraine and Uzbekistan).[46]

text:
Historical eligibility for the Diversity Immigrant Visa lottery

Country
Fiscal year

1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019

 Bangladesh
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

 Brazil
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

 Canada
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

 China
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

 Colombia
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

 Dominican Republic
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

 Ecuador
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes

 El Salvador
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

 Guatemala
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

 Haiti
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

 India
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

 Jamaica
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

 Mexico
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

 Nigeria
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No

 Pakistan
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

 Peru
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

 Philippines
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

 Poland
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

 Russia
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

 South Korea
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

 Taiwan
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

 United Kingdom
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

 Vietnam
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

Others
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

text: Statistics

text:
Applicants (including dependents)[52][53][54][46]

Region
DV-2007
DV-2008
DV-2009
DV-2010
DV-2011
DV-2012
DV-2013
DV-2014
DV-2015
DV-2016
DV-2017
DV-2018

Africa
3,901,066
4,150,726
4,372,522
5,105,274
5,812,139
6,304,186
6,783,699
7,500,487
6,586,260
N/A
N/A
N/A

Asia
2,732,805
3,506,073
6,401,172
6,175,452
7,870,896
10,102,185
1,863,169
2,384,168
2,720,578
N/A
N/A
N/A

Europe
1,910,410
2,120,916
2,174,715
2,154,567
2,593,074
3,022,506
3,512,521
4,434,266
4,731,913
N/A
N/A
N/A

Latin America
489,144
243,694
192,447
126,168
193,932
200,712
377,386
266,272
315,667
N/A
N/A
N/A

North America
1,968
2,647
3,193
2,624
3,793
3,717
3,356
3,657
3,585
N/A
N/A
N/A

Oceania
34,834
40,260
40,964
33,743
37,674
38,962
37,224
45,120
39,884
N/A
N/A
N/A

Total
9,070,227
10,064,316
13,185,013
13,597,828
16,511,508
19,672,268
12,577,355
14,633,970
14,397,887
17,573,350
19,344,586
23,088,613

text:
Selected applicants (including dependents)[52][53][54]

Region
DV-2007
DV-2008
DV-2009
DV-2010
DV-2011
DV-2012
DV-2013
DV-2014
DV-2015
DV-2016
DV-2017
DV-2018

Africa
43,998
52,823
53,979
54,003
51,004
50,000
52,080
61,942
58,000
45,034
38,500
49,392

Asia
11,929
14,142
14,002
15,001
14,999
15,002
16,045
23,270
20,002
15,002
13,499
15,997

Europe
21,939
26,150
27,921
29,803
30,999
31,001
33,088
46,589
40,000
27,011
28,500
41,706

Latin America
3,097
1,845
1,893
1,982
2,001
2,002
2,206
4,620
3,999
3,000
1,951
4,995

North America
12
17
12
18
18
15
16
23
14
16
10
15

Oceania
1,398
1,713
1,801
1,803
1,600
2,001
2,193
4,215
3,499
1,500
1,450
3,863

Total
82,373
96,690
99,608
102,610
100,621
100,021
105,628
140,659
125,514
91,563
83,910
115,968

text:
Proportion of applicants who were selected

Region
DV-2007
DV-2008
DV-2009
DV-2010
DV-2011
DV-2012
DV-2013
DV-2014
DV-2015
DV-2016
DV-2017
DV-2018

Africa
1.13%
1.27%
1.23%
1.06%
0.88%
0.79%
0.77%
0.83%
0.88%
N/A
N/A
N/A

Asia
0.44%
0.40%
0.22%
0.24%
0.19%
0.15%
0.86%
0.98%
0.74%
N/A
N/A
N/A

Europe
1.15%
1.23%
1.28%
1.38%
1.20%
1.03%
0.94%
1.05%
0.85%
N/A
N/A
N/A

Latin America
0.63%
0.76%
0.98%
1.57%
1.03%
1.00%
0.58%
1.74%
1.27%
N/A
N/A
N/A

North America
0.61%
0.64%
0.38%
0.69%
0.47%
0.40%
0.48%
0.63%
0.39%
N/A
N/A
N/A

Oceania
4.01%
4.25%
4.40%
5.34%
4.25%
5.14%
5.89%
9.34%
8.77%
N/A
N/A
N/A

Total
0.91%
0.96%
0.76%
0.75%
0.61%
0.51%
0.84%
0.96%
0.87%
0.52%
0.43%
0.50%

text: Fraud

text: There is no charge to enter the Diversity Visa lottery, and the only way to do so is by completing and sending the electronic form available at the U.S. Department of State website during the registration period. However, there are numerous companies and websites that charge a fee in order to complete the form for the applicant. The Department of State and the Federal Trade Commission have warned that some of these businesses falsely claim to increase someone's chances of winning the lottery, or that they are affiliated with the U.S. government.[55]

text: There have also been numerous cases of fraudulent emails and letters which falsely claim to have been sent by the Department of State and that the recipient has been granted a Permanent Resident Card. These messages prompt the recipients to transfer a "visa processing fee" as a prerequisite for obtaining a "guaranteed" green card. The messages are sometimes sent to people who never participated in the lottery and can look trustworthy as they contain the recipient's exact name and contact details and what appears to be a legal notice.

text: The Department of State has issued a warning against the scammers. It notes that any email claiming the recipient to be a winner of the lottery is fake because the Department has never notified and will not notify winners by email. The Department has urged recipients of such messages to notify the Internet Crime Complaint Center about the scam.[56]

text: The office of inspector general has identified multiple problems with DV lottery in several countries, including Ukraine, Ghana, Albania in embassy inspection reports.[57][58][59]

text: According to testimony from Stephen A. Edson before the House Judiciary Committee, "in Bangladesh, for example, one agent is reported to have enrolled an entire phone book so that he could then either extort money from winning applicants who had never entered the program to begin with or sell their winning slots to others."[60]

text: Impact

text: Economic

text: According to Dartmouth economist Ethan Lewis, ending the diversity lottery program would likely have an adverse economic impact on Americans.[why?][61]

text: There is no support in the economics for the assertion that immigrants suppress wages and take jobs from Americans; to the contrary, research by Lewis and several other economists of migration shows that diverse and low-skilled immigrants lift the wages of native-born workers, as those immigrants are less substitutable to native-born workers.[61] Charles Kenny, an economist at the Center for Global Development, noted that research by Harvard economist Alberto Alesina found that countries with a higher share of foreign-born populations tended to have more innovation and higher incomes.[62]

text: Security

text: In 2004, the State Department’s deputy inspector general warned that there were security risks to granting visas to winners from countries with ties to terrorism.[63] A 2007 Government Accountability Office report however found no evidence that recipients of diversity visas posed a threat.[63]

text: According to PolitiFact, "there is at least one documented example of an individual who migrated through the diversity visa system and was later arrested on terrorism-related charges. But it is unclear that the diversity lottery has historically been used as a strategic entry point for terrorists."[64]

text: The uncle of Akayed Ullah, the man who set off a dud bomb on a New York City subway platform in 2017, won a diversity lottery, which enabled him to bring his nephew to the United States under the family reunification provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.[65]

text: Experts on immigration note that the chances of winning the lottery are low and those who do win the lottery still have to undergo background checks and vetting, which makes the diversity lottery program a poor choice for immigrants considering launching terrorist attacks in the United States.[64]

text: According to the Cato Institute, immigrants from the countries with the highest percentage of diversity visas have vastly lower incarceration rates than native-born Americans.[66]


document_title: List of largest empires

question_text: who has conquered the most land in history

text: List of largest empires

text: Measurement[edit]

text: This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2017)

text: Both what constitutes an empire and the calculation of the land area of a particular empire are controversial subjects. Rein Taagepera has defined an empire as "any relatively large sovereign political entity whose components are not sovereign" and its size as the area over which the empire has some undisputed military and taxation prerogatives.[1]

text: Largest empires by land area[edit]

text: For context, note that the total land area of the Earth is 148,940,000 km2 (57,500,000 sq mi).[2] This is a list of empires whose greatest extent exceeded 2% of that area.

text: Empires at their greatest extent[edit]

text:
Empire
Max. land area (million km2)
Max. land area (million mi2)
% of world land area
Year

British Empire
35.5[3]
13.71
7001238400000000000♠23.84%
000000001920-01-01-00001920[3]

Mongol Empire
24.0[3][4]
9.27
7001161100000000000♠16.11%
000000001270-01-01-00001270[4] or 000000001309-01-01-00001309[3]

Russian Empire
22.8[3][4]
8.80
7001153100000000000♠15.31%
000000001895-01-01-00001895[3][4]

Qing dynasty
14.7[3][4]
5.68
7000986990000099999♠9.87%
000000001790-01-01-00001790[3][4]

Spanish Empire
13.7[3]
5.29
7000920000000099999♠9.20%
000000001810-01-01-00001810[3]

Second French colonial empire
11.5[3]
4.44
7000772000000000000♠7.72%
000000001920-01-01-00001920[3]

Abbasid Caliphate
11.1[3][4]
4.29
7000745000000000000♠7.45%
000000000750-01-01-0000750[3][4]

Umayyad Caliphate
11.1[3]
4.29
7000745000000000000♠7.45%
000000000720-01-01-0000720[3]

Yuan dynasty
11.0[3]
4.25
7000739000000000000♠7.39%
000000001310-01-01-00001310[3]

Portuguese Empire
10.4[5]
4.02
7000698000000000000♠6.98%
000000001815-01-01-00001815[5]

Xiongnu Empire
9.0[4][6]
3.47
7000604000000000000♠6.04%
-999999999824-01-01-0000176 BC[4][6]

Empire of Brazil
8.337[7]
3.22
7000560000000099999♠5.60%
000000001889-01-01-00001889[7]

Eastern Han Dynasty
6.5[6]
2.51
7000436000000000000♠4.36%
000000000100-01-01-0000100[6]

Ming dynasty
6.5[3][4]
2.51
7000436000000000000♠4.36%
000000001450-01-01-00001450[3][4]

Rashidun Caliphate
6.4[3]
2.47
7000430000000000000♠4.30%
000000000655-01-01-0000655[3]

Göktürk Khaganate
6.0[4][6]
2.32
7000403000000000000♠4.03%
000000000557-01-01-0000557[4][6]

Golden Horde Khanate
6.0[3][4]
2.32
7000403000000000000♠4.03%
000000001310-01-01-00001310[3][4]

Western Han Dynasty
6.0[4][6]
2.32
7000403000000000000♠4.03%
-999999999950-01-01-000050 BC[4][6]

Achaemenid Empire
5.5[4][6]
2.12
7000369000000000000♠3.69%
-999999999500-01-01-0000500 BC[4][6]

Tang dynasty
5.4[3][4]
2.08
7000363000000000000♠3.63%
000000000715-01-01-0000715[3][4]

Macedonian Empire
5.2[4][6]
2.01
7000349000000000000♠3.49%
-999999999677-01-01-0000323 BC[4][6]

Ottoman Empire
5.2[3][4]
2.01
7000349000000000000♠3.49%
000000001683-01-01-00001683[3][4]

Maurya Empire
5.0[4]
1.93
7000336000000000000♠3.36%
-999999999750-01-01-0000250 BC[4]

Roman Empire
5.0[4][6]
1.93
7000336000000000000♠3.36%
000000000117-01-01-0000117[4][6]

Tibetan Empire
4.6[3][4]
1.78
7000309000000000000♠3.09%
000000000800-01-01-0000800[3][4]

Timurid Empire
4.4[3][4]
1.70
7000295000000000000♠2.95%
000000001405-01-01-00001405[3][4]

Fatimid Caliphate
4.1[3][4]
1.58
7000275000000000000♠2.75%
000000000969-01-01-0000969[3][4]

Eastern Turkic Khaganate
4.0[6]
1.54
7000269000000000000♠2.69%
000000000624-01-01-0000624[6]

Hephthalite Empire
4.0[6]
1.54
7000269000000000000♠2.69%
000000000470-01-01-0000470[6]

Hunnic Empire
4.0[4][6]
1.54
7000269000000000000♠2.69%
000000000441-01-01-0000441[4][6]

Mughal Empire
4.0[3][4]
1.54
7000269000000000000♠2.69%
000000001690-01-01-00001690[3][4]

Great Seljuq Empire
3.9[3][4]
1.51
7000262000000000000♠2.62%
000000001080-01-01-00001080[3][4]

Seleucid Empire
3.9[4][6]
1.51
7000262000000000000♠2.62%
-999999999699-01-01-0000301 BC[4][6]

Italian Empire
3.798[8]
1.47
7000255000000099999♠2.55%
000000001938-01-01-00001938[8]

Ilkhanate
3.75[3][4]
1.45
7000252000000000000♠2.52%
000000001310-01-01-00001310[3][4]

Khwarazmian Empire
3.6[3]
1.39
7000242000000000000♠2.42%
000000001218-01-01-00001218[3]

Chagatai Khanate
3.5[3][4]
1.35
7000235000000000000♠2.35%
000000001310-01-01-00001310[3] or 000000001350-01-01-00001350[3][4]

Gupta Empire
3.5[4]
1.35
7000235000000000000♠2.35%
000000000400-01-01-0000400[4]

Sasanian Empire
3.5[4][6]
1.35
7000235000000000000♠2.35%
000000000550-01-01-0000550[4][6]

Western Turkic Khaganate
3.5[6]
1.35
7000235000000000000♠2.35%
000000000630-01-01-0000630[6]

First French colonial empire
3.4[3]
1.31
7000227990000099999♠2.28%
000000001670-01-01-00001670[3]

Ghaznavid Empire
3.4[3][4]
1.31
7000227990000099999♠2.28%
000000001029-01-01-00001029[3][4]

Delhi Sultanate (Tughlaq dynasty)
3.2[3][4]
1.24
7000215000000000000♠2.15%
000000001312-01-01-00001312[3][4]

German colonial empire
3.199[9][10]
1.24
7000215000000000000♠2.15%
000000001912-01-01-00001912[10]

Song dynasty
3.1[3][4]
1.20
7000208000000000000♠2.08%
000000000980-01-01-0000980[3][4]

Uyghur Khaganate
3.1[3][4]
1.20
7000208000000000000♠2.08%
000000000800-01-01-0000800[3][4]

Western Jin dynasty
3.1[6]
1.20
7000208000000000000♠2.08%
000000000280-01-01-0000280[6]

Khazar Khanate
3.0[4]
1.16
7000200999999999999♠2.01%
000000000850-01-01-0000850[4]

Sui Dynasty
3.0[6]
1.16
7000200999999999999♠2.01%
000000000589-01-01-0000589[6]

text: Largest empires by percentage of global population[edit]

text: This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2017)

text: According to the Guinness World Records, the Achaemenid Empire ruled the greatest percentage of the global population. This was in 440BC, when it ruled about 49.4 million people of the global population of 112.4 million, or 44%.[11]


document_title: The Simpsons: Tapped Out

question_text: how many levels are there on tapped out

question_tokens: how many levels are there on tapped out

text: The Simpsons: Tapped Out

text: Story[edit]

text: Too busy playing an elf-related game on his myPad (parody of iPad) at work, Homer neglects his workstation and accidentally causes a meltdown at the nuclear power plant, leading to a complete destruction of Springfield. Left stranded, he is solely responsible for rebuilding Springfield and bringing back its town members. Homer is desperate to find other characters so that he can get them to rebuild and he can get back to his elf game. With the help of Lisa, Homer rebuilds Springfield and brings back key sought out characters.

text: Gameplay[edit]

text: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: The game may be considered a city-building game. It offers a variety of buildings (houses, shops, public buildings from the animation series) that the player buys with "Money ($)" in-game currency. Premium items are bought with donuts which can also be purchased with real-world cash. This references Homer Simpson's passion for donuts within the series. The player uses building and character quest-lines to make in-game progress. By completing quests and levels, the player collects more characters and buildings unlocking further quests and levels. Each building regularly generates in-game money to collect, under names such as "Income tax" from houses and the "Collection plate" from the First Church of Springfield. Players can place rivers, roads, pavement and decorations on the land. In 2013, developers added the "Krustyland" transporter, to get players from Springfield to the infamous Krustyland, where they can expand and build like the main Springfield game.

text: The game is supported by EA's Origin, which acts as a social bridge to where players log into their Origin accounts and visit friends' towns to collect cash once every 24 hours; and occasionally other tasks during an event.

text: There is a hidden easter egg where, in order to obtain the statue of Jebediah Springfield decoration, the player must tap Homer 10 times in a row whilst he is performing any task. This action also gives the player 10 free donuts, but can only work once.

text: Since the May 18, 2016 update, the maximum number of levels is currently 939, because this is the Simpsons' area code in Springfield.

text: Themed updates[edit]

text: The following content updates have been released for the game:

text:
Event/Update
Theme
Dates

Moonshine River
Episode promotional
September 28, 2012

Treehouse of Horror XXIII
Halloween
October 12, 2012 – November 8, 2012

Thanksgiving 2012
Thanksgiving
November 8, 2012

Penny-Wiseguys
Episode promotional
November 13, 2012

The Day the Earth Stood Cool
Episode promotional
November 30, 2012

Christmas 2012
Christmas
December 5, 2012 – January 10, 2013

Valentine's Day 2013
Valentine's Day
January 30, 2013 – February 28, 2013

Gorgeous Grampa
Episode promotional
February 28, 2013 – March 4, 2013

St. Patrick's Day 2013
St. Patrick's Day
March 7, 2013

Dark Knight Court
Episode promotional
March 14, 2013

What Animated Women Want
Episode promotional
April 28, 2013

Whacking Day 2013
Whacking Day
April 10, 2013 – May 16, 2013

Whiskey Business
Episode promotional
May 2, 2013

Season 24 finale
Episode promotional
May 16, 2013

Squidport Expansion
Expansion
June 12, 2013 – present

4th July 2013
Fourth of July
June 28, 2013 – July 8, 2013

Krustyland Expansion
Expansion
July 31, 2013 – present

Homerland
Episode promotional
September 23, 2013 – October 1, 2013

Treehouse of Horror XXIV
Halloween
October 1, 2013 – November 7, 2013

Thanksgiving 2013
Thanksgiving
November 15, 2013 – December 3, 2013

Yellow Subterfuge
Episode promotional
December 4, 2013

Holidays 2013
Christmas
December 10, 2013 – January 14, 2014

Married to the Blob
Episode promotional
January 8, 2014

Super Bowl
Super Bowl XLVIII
January 29, 2014 – February 2, 2014

Valentine's Day 2014
Valentine's Day
February 5, 2014 – February 26, 2014

Social Currency
Expansion
March 2, 2014 – Present

Diggs/The Man Who Grew Too Much
Episode promotional
March 7, 2014

St. Patrick's Day 2014
St. Patrick's Day
March 12, 2014 – March 25, 2014

The War of Art
Episode promotional
March 19, 2014

Days of Future Future
Episode promotional
April 9, 2014

Easter 2014
Easter
April 15, 2014 – May 13, 2014

The Yellow Badge of Cowardge
Episode promotional
May 16, 2014

Stonecutters
Stonecutters
June 4, 2014 – July 2, 2014

4 July 2014
Fourth of July
July 2, 2014 – July 15, 2014

Clash of Clones
Clash of Clans parody
August 19, 2014 – October 7, 2014

Clown in the Dumps
Episode promotional
September 24, 2014

Treehouse of Horror XXV
Halloween
October 7, 2014 – November 12, 2014

Simpsorama
Episode promotional
November 5, 2014

Thanksgiving 2014
Thanksgiving
November 20, 2014 – December 2, 2014

Covercraft
Episode promotional
November 20, 2014 – November 25, 2014

Winter 2014
Christmas/Winter
December 3, 2014 – January 14, 2015

Valentine's Day 2015
Valentine's Day
February 12, 2015 – February 17, 2015

Superheroes
Superheroes
February 18, 2015 – March 31, 2015

St. Patrick's Day 2015
St. Patrick's Day
March 16, 2015 – March 23, 2015

Easter 2015
Easter
April 3, 2015 - April 7, 2015

Terwilligers
Sideshow Bob & Family
April 14, 2015 - May 26, 2015

Pride Month
Pride Month
June 3, 2015 - June 10, 2015

Tap Ball
2015 FIFA Women's World Cup
June 23, 2015 - July 21, 2015

4 July 2015
Fourth of July
June 30, 2015 – July 9, 2015

Springfield Heights Expansion
Expansion
July 22, 2015 – present

Monorail
Monorail
August 11, 2015 – September 15, 2015

Every Man's Dream
Episode promotional
September 23, 2015

Treehouse of Horror XXVI
Halloween
October 6, 2015 – November 17, 2015

Thanksgiving 2015
Thanksgiving
November 19, 2015 – December 1, 2015

Winter 2015
Christmas/Winter
December 8, 2015 – January 19, 2016

Much Apu About Something
Episode promotional
January 13, 2016

Deep Space Homer 2016
Deep Space Homer
January 21, 2016 - February 3, 2016

World's Largest Redwood
Redwood Tree
February 17, 2016 – present

Burns' Casino 2016
Gambling
February 24, 2016 – March 29, 2016

The Marge-ian Chronicles
Episode promotional
March 10, 2016

St. Easter 2016
St. Patrick's Day/Easter
March 16, 2016 – March 30, 2016

Crook and Ladder 2016
Fire Safety
March 31, 2016 – April 14, 2016

Wild West 2016
Wild West
April 19, 2016 – May 30, 2016

Homer's Chiliad 2016
Chili
June 2, 2016 - June 15, 2016

Superheroes 2
Superheroes
June 16, 2016 – July, 2016

Sci-Fi
Future set selected episodes:

"Lisa's Wedding"
"They Saved Lisa's Brain"
"Bart to the Future"
"Holidays of Future Passed"
"Days of Future Future"
"Simpsorama"

August 16, 2016 – September 20, 2016

Season 2016 Premiere

September 21, 2016 – October 4, 2016

Treehouse of Horror XXVII
Halloween
October 4, 2016 - November 15, 2016

Havana Wild Weekend
Episode promotional
November 8, 2016

Thanksgiving 2016
Thanksgiving
November 15, 2016 – November 29, 2016

Winter 2016
Christmas/Winter
December 6, 2016 - December 30, 2016

Homer the Heretic 2017
Homer the Heretic
January 3, 2017 – January 18, 2017

The Great Phatsby
Episode promotional
January 11, 2017

Destination Springfield
Worldwide selected episodes:

"The Crepes of Wrath"
"In Marge We Trust"
"Thirty Minutes over Tokyo"
"Blame It on Lisa"

January 31, 2017 – March 7, 2017

22 for 30
Episode promotional
March 8, 2017

Rommelwood Academy 2017
Rommelwood Academy
March 15, 2017 – March 28, 2017

Secret Agents
Secret Agents
March 28, 2017 – May 9, 2017

Easter 2017
Easter
April 16, 2017 – April 23, 2017

Pin Pals 2017
Pin Pals
May 9, 2017 – May 23, 2017

Time Travelling Toaster
Historical selected episodes:

"Simpsons Bible Stories"
"Lost Our Lisa"

May 30, 2017 – July 5, 2017

Pride 2017
Pride
July 6, 2017 – July 18, 2017

Homerpalooza
Homerpalooza
August 3, 2017 – September 12, 2017

text: Major events include a temporary currency, which can be used to buy – or win – limited edition prizes.[5] For some events every user's winnings contributed to a community fund, which includes prizes for certain levels of the event currency.[6]

text: Development[edit]

text: According to game runner and longtime Simpsons writer J. Stewart Burns, the game originally started as a "labor of love" and he didn't expect much to happen after the game's release.[7] Although they do not get credited, there are about ten writers who currently work on the game, including Simpsons writers Burns, Matt Selman, Brian Kelley, Jeff Westbrook, Jon Kern, Carolyn Omine and Diana Wright.[7]

text: In-game problems[edit]

text: Shortly after the iOS launch, the game was pulled from the iOS App Store due to EA's servers being unable to cope with the demand and a plethora of serious glitches reported by users.[8] After a month had passed, EA set up a forum whereby users could report bug issues, but failed to offer solutions to issues or temporary updates. Some users who had made in-app purchases discovered that their purchases had vanished. After contacting EA, users were able to collect refunds directly from Apple. Several months later on August 16, 2012[9], the app returned to the App Store.

text: Criticism[edit]

text: Due to criticism of the larger trend of freemium games' revenue structure, the game was satirized in the South Park episode Freemium Isn't Free as exploitative and lacking in gameplay.[10] The game itself earlier lampooned this point during an in-game conversation between two characters.[11]