The media is claiming that the blackwashed live action version of the classic Disney film is a big success.
Disney’s The Little Mermaid has topped the box office at the number one spot over Memorial Day weekend with a whopping debut of an estimated $118 million.
The live-action remake, which is also mixed with CGI animation, stars Halle Bailey playing the leading role of Ariel, whose casting initially sparked backlash, Melissa McCarthy as sea witch Ursula and Jonah Hauer-King portraying Prince Eric.
On Friday alone, the film raked in a total of $38 million in ticket sales in celebration of the anticipated project’s release in theaters to kick off the summer season. Through Sunday, The Little Mermaid garnered $96 million in the box office, and over the span of the entire holiday weekend, the movie is expected to make $118 million in the domestic markets, making it the fifth highest Memorial Day opening in history, per Variety.
‘This gives Disney the green light to keep mining its vault. With an opening this big, I think you’re going to keep seeing these live-action reboots.’
Wow, apparently people really want to see black people replacing their redheaded icons after all, right? Well, not so fast. The Dark Herald puts the numbers in their true perspective at the Arkhaven blog.
This is a disaster for Disney.
Not that you would know that from the level of spin going on in the trade media.
“BOFFO BOX OFFICE BONANZA FOR THE THE LITTLE MERMAID THAT COULD! $163 MILLION ON ITS OPENING WEEKEND!!!
If that was just the domestic total then, awesome, boffo indeed. But it’s the grand total. Just for reference, the godawful CGI Lion King remake hauled in $269 million on its opening weekend and that was in 2019 pre-Bidenflation bucks. In today money it would be $358 million.
The Little Mermaid’s domestic haul is an acceptable-I-guess $95 million.
But the International market has cratered at $68 million. That is a catastrophe for Disney. Simply put, the critically important international market is blatantly and obviously not going to get better from here.
More importantly, Disney desperately needed The Little Mermaid to overperform due to the number of recent flops it has released in the aftermath of the shutdown of its parks. Because Indiana Jones: The Old Guy’s Last Hurrah or whatever it is called, is already more doomed than the temple of the second film.