Beyond the quality of the film, there were doubts about the box office potential of The little Mermaid. Although various adaptations live action of the Disney classics have surprised for good with their numbers, there are also others that have failed to generate an impact at the box office. Although the controversy over its protagonist worried many ahead of the film’s premiere, many others did not consider that it was a problem when it came to selling tickets. What was the end result?
In the United States and Canada, Disney took advantage of Memorial Day weekend to launch the film directed by Rob Marshall and emulate the success of other projects released on the same date. In the end, The little Mermaid It raised $95.4 million dollars (MDD) from Friday to Sunday, and an estimate of $117.4 if the holiday on Monday is considered. The figure is slightly higher than that obtained by aladdin in 2019 ($91/$116.7), but it fell a bit short of the estimates Disney released a few days ago.
With these numbers, this is how it is located The little Mermaid within the reinventions released by the company.
- The Lion King – $191 million
- Beauty and the Beast – $174 million
- Alice in Wonderland – $116 million
- the jungle book – $103 million
- The little Mermaid – $95 million
- aladdin – $91 million
- Oz the powerful – $79 million
- maleficent – $69 million
- Cinderella – $67 million
- Dumbo $45 million
- Maleficent: mistress of evil – $36 million
- cruella – $21 million (in pandemic and with simultaneous release on Disney Plus)
- my friend the dragon – $21 million
Fortunately, the public loved what they saw on the screen, giving it a spectacular A in CinemaScoresimilar to most adaptations live action. This grade serves as an incentive for the weeks to come, as it indicates good word of mouth and could translate into slight falls over the coming weekends. It also helps that over 60% of his audience has been female. ribbons like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and Flash they are aimed at a mostly male audience, and would not represent as much competition as might be expected. A finish slightly above $300 million in North America is not out of the question.
Unfortunately, the international figures are far from good. Going into the weekend, Disney was expecting roughly $80 million. But support for Ariel was not that strong, and the result barely came close to $68.3 million, giving a global opening of $163.8 million through Sunday. Although other tapes would kill for numbers like this, the truth is that Disney expected more. aladdin exceeded $200, while Beauty and the Beast It went up to $350. The best markets of The little Mermaid were Mexico ($8.5 million), United Kingdom ($6.3 million), Italy ($4.7 million), Brazil ($4 million) and Australia ($4 million). In China it barely registered $2.5 million dollars.
For better or worse, the closest comparisons are maleficent ($175 million) and Maleficent: mistress of evil ($150). With a production budget of $250 million, The little Mermaid it must register at least a $600 million box office to be profitable for Disney. And while family movies often have strong legs at the box office, it’s not entirely clear whether the Halle Bailey-starring film can make it to that level.
Did they contribute to the numbers of The little Mermaid? If so, what is your opinion about this adaptation?
Juan Jose Cruz I am one of those who always defended Robert Pattinson as Batman and can see the same movie in the theater up to 7 times. My guilty pleasure? Low budget horror movie.