 Beauty and the Beast premiered as an unfinished film at the New York Film Festival on September 29 , 1991 , followed by its theatrical release as a completed film at the El Capitan Theatre on November 22 . The film was a box office success , grossing $ 425 million worldwide . Beauty and the Beast received positive reviews ; it won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and became the first animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture . It won the Academy Award for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for its title song . In 2002 , Beauty and the Beast was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being " culturally , historically , or aesthetically significant " . 
