Although in 2019 her career seemed to take off, the truth is that Mena Massoud has struggled to find success in Hollywood. starring aladdin It looked like his ticket to success, but the actor himself has acknowledged that it has not been easy for him to find good opportunities. Now, her name has grabbed headlines and the attention of many, but not exactly for the right reasons. A controversial comment about The little Mermaid made dozens of users on Twitter attack Mena Massoud.
The protagonist of aladdin responded to a box office report comparing the potential of The little Mermaid with the of live action starring Massoud in 2019. Although there is currently no access to the original tweet, various media were able to capture what was published by the Egyptian actor.
“Our film was unique in that audiences went to see it multiple times. It’s the only way we hit the billion dollar mark with our opening. My bet is that TLM (The Little Mermaid / La sirenita) will not cross the billion mark, but it will undoubtedly get a sequel.
After the message, many fans of the musical starring Halle Bailey felt Massoud’s words as a criticism of the new Disney project. Some felt that the actor suggested that The little Mermaid was not worthy of success or a possible sequel and criticized his “jealousy”, since he did not get a sequel to his live action. Within hours of posting the message, Massoud deactivated his Twitter account and, to this day, it remains unavailable.
So far, projections of The little Mermaid point to a $110 – 120 million US debut in its first four days. This figure would be on a par with what was collected by aladdin in 2019, and during the same weekend. Interestingly, both adaptations were heavily criticized for the look of their main characters and the way they handled the legacy of the original tapes.
However, there is a big difference. aladdin it exceeded $1.053 million dollars not only because “the public went to see it several times”, as Massoud mentioned. The film benefited from taking on several films that either disappointed at the box office or were outright flops (Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Dark Phoenix, The Secret Life of Pets 2 and MIB: International). The only strong competition from him came until almost a month later, with Toy Sory 4.
The situation is different this summer. The little Mermaid will have to face fast and furious 10 (in its second weekend), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and Flash, among other. Get to the numbers aladdin is not the barrier to being a success, and even numbers similar to those of maleficent ($758 million dollars) would be more than profitable.
What do you think of Mena Massoud’s comments? Do you think the actor had bad intentions with his comments or his fans? The little Mermaid did they overreact?
