Disney’s The Little Mermaid is projected to bring in $100 million in North America over its opening weekend Friday to Sunday, Variety and Deadline reported Wednesday, making the live action remake one of the biggest releases this year, but still well below blockbusters The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Disney's remake of 'The Little Mermaid' is projected to take in $120 million by Monday.
After nearly three years of production on a $250 million budget, The Little Mermaid opens Thursday at roughly 4,300 theaters in North America, where it’s reportedly expected to make $100 million through Sunday night and $120 million by the end of the Monday holiday.
If projections hold up, the remake of Disney’s 1989 classic would follow other 2023 releases like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 to surpass $100 million during its opening weekend, though it’s a ways away from the Mario Bros. Movie’s $146 million opening.
That would also put it in the middle of Disney’s recent live-action remakes, well behind 2019’s The Lion King ($191 million) and 2017’s Beauty and the Beast ($174 million), but more than double 2019’s Dumbo ($45 million).
Worldwide, the highly anticipated remake directed by Rob Marshall (Mary Poppins Returns, Into the Woods) and starring Halle Bailey as Ariel and Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, is expected to see $180 million in its opening weekend, Deadline reported.
Reviews of the movie have been mixed, but generally positive, with critics on Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 73% score and critics on Metacritic giving it a score of 59. A review in Variety lauded Bailey and McCarthy’s performance, but lamented Marshall’s “distracting visual effect” detract from the remake. The Hollywood Reporter was also wishy-washy about the movie, saying it “nearly drowns in deja vu.”
Weeks before its opening, fans criticized the live action remake after catching a glimpse of Ariel’s re-animated sidekick, Flounder, in the first trailer of the movie. Critics argued the animated bottom-dweller is uncomfortably realistic looking, marking a departure from the cartoonish yellow original, and coming dangerously close to a phenomenon known all too well among fans of 2004’s The Polar Express or 2019’s Cats as “uncanny valley”—a middle ground between ultra-cartoonish animation and real life. The film has also faced a racist response for casting Ariel as a Black woman, as opposed to the red-haired white mermaid in the 1989 original, with some people tweeting #NotMyAriel in response (Disney’s Freeform network slammed the criticism, emphasizing Ariel is a fictional character).
How ‘The Little Mermaid’ Ranks Among The Rest Of Disney’s Live Action Remakes (Forbes)
‘The Little Mermaid’ Review: Halle Bailey Enchants In The New Live-Action Disney Film (Forbes)