Beyoncé film roles: singer’s movie appearances from Austin Powers to Dreamgirls as Renaissance hits cinemas

Concert films are having a moment this year - Taylor Swift’s Eras film has so far made $250 million worldwide off a comparatively miniscule $15 million budget, and now Beyoncé’s Renaissance film is gearing up to follow suit.  

Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé, has a reported budget of $28 million but is all but certain of making that back and then some when it hits cinemas worldwide on December 1. The project has already made several million dollars in pre-sales as fans rush to secure a ticket to see Queen Bey on the silver screen.

But Renaissance is not Beyoncé’s first film, in fact the former Destiny’s Child singer has eight acting credits to her name having appeared in everything from musical biopics to big budget Disney movies.  

What else has Beyoncé starred in?

Hardly a starring role, Beyoncé’s first film appearance was as Girl #1 in the thankfully little known comedy Beverly Hood. She featured alongside fellow Destiny’s Child singers LeToya Luckett, LaTavia Roberson, and Kelly Rowland. The movie is about a poor Black southern family who win the lottery and move to Beverly Hills, but frankly the less said about this movie the better.

Another clanger for the Single Ladies singer was the third Austin Powers movie, Goldmember in which she played Foxxy Cleopatra in a parody of the Blaxploitation genre of the 1970s. Beyoncé had another leading role in the 2003 romcom Fighting Temptations, where she starred alongside Cuba Gooding Jr. 

Beyoncé’s next film was crime comedy remake The Pink Panther, where she starred Steve Martin, playing Xania, a glamorous pop star, which can’t have been much of a challenge for her as by this point Beyoncé was becoming world famous for her music. 

Her most well-known film role remains 2006’s Dreamgirls, a musical drama about three Black women soul singers who move into pop music in the 1960s. She played the lead role of Deena Jones and starred opposite Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, and Anika Noni Rose. The film, made on a $75 million budget, was the most expensive film with an all-Black lead cast ever made at the time.

Beyoncé continued to star opposite big names in films that ultimately left little impression - there was music biopic Cadillac Records with Adrien Brody, romantic thriller Obsessed with Idris Elba, and animated fantasy film Epic with Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, and Colin Farrell. 

Ultimately, Beyoncé became a pop megastar, with songs like Single Ladies, Love on Top, and Hold Up, among many many more. In 2016 she led the halftime show at Super Bowl 50, and it was clear that the singer had turned her back on the movies.

She did return to film briefly though, starring in the live action Lion King remake, voicing Nala. The film made a staggering $1.6 billion at the box office, whilst the singer reportedly made $446,000 for every line she spoke in the movie.