Hollywood Reporter, 20 November 2014
By Pamela McClintock

Princess fever is sweeping the land.

In its first 24 hours, the trailer for 'Cinderella' was viewed 4.2 million times on YouTube and 33 million times on Facebook, the biggest showing in history for a Disney movie, excluding Marvel releases, and a fairy-tale start for any film.

Kenneth Branagh directs the live-action retelling of the classic story, starring Cate Blanchett as the wicked stepmother and 'Downton Abbey''s Lily James as Ella.

'Cinderella', hitting theaters March 13, follows the blockbuster success of 'Maleficent', the re-imagining of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale starring Angelina Jolie, and furthers Disney's foray into live-action terrain as a way of mining its vault (the category also includes Tim Burton's take on 'Alice in Wonderland').

'Maleficent' grossed a massive $757.7 million at the global box office earlier this year, and is no doubt helping to ignite interest in 'Cinderella'. The first trailer for 'Maleficent' was viewed 1.5 million times on YouTube on its first day, compared to the 4.2 million for 'Cinderella'.

Inspired by Charles Perrault's fairy tale and Disney's 1950 animated film, 'Cinderella' also stars Helena Bonham Carter, who plays the Fairy Godmother, and Richard Madden, who plays Prince Charming. Hayley Atwell plays Cinderella's late mother.