The Little Mermaid's Official Opening Weekend Box Office Numbers Are Slightly Lower Than Projected
The Little Mermaid's official opening weekend box office numbers are out, and they indicate a nice wave of money coming in for Disney and movie theaters everywhere – even if the wave is a little smaller than projected. Headed into Sunday it was confirmed that The Little Mermaid is Disney's biggest live-action movie opening, with projections stating that the film could make upwards of $120-123 million domestically over the four-day Memorial Day Weekend holiday.
Well, updated projections for Memorial Day are now stating that The Little Mermaid will pull in $117.5 million domestically over the Memorial Day holiday, which is obviously lower than the $120M+ projections. It seems that Sunday ticket sales for The Little Mermaid didn't keep pace with the Friday and Saturday sales figures, forcing analysts to drop the projected total down a bit. The question now is:
Could The Little Mermaid (2023) Flop?
The Little Mermaid live-action remake reportedly cost Disney upwards of $250 million – not surprising, given the expensive combination of real maritime set pieces; an entire underwater world; elaborate period-piece costuming, set design, props, and vehicles; not to mention, all the CGI visual effects required to tell the story of Princess Ariel (Halle Bailey). So far, the film has earned a total of $185.8M worldwide in opening weekend (at the time of writing this), but it's the international figure (well below $100M) that has some analysts concerned. If The Little Mermaid doesn't have stronger legs overseas, the domestic box office likely won't be much of a big help, with the summer movie rush about to hit hard and fast (and furious).
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is already being touted as THE big summer movie for younger audiences to see, and it will cut significantly into The Little Mermaid's second-week run – with much bigger international appeal, as well. The same could be said for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts: it has had a somewhat muted buzz domestically, but the Transformers franchise does eat well on the international market. By the end of June, Disney will be throwing its own weight behind Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny's release, leaving Little Mermaid to swim upstream all on its own towards more profit.
On the positive side, The Little Mermaid has at least seemed to have given Disney's live-action remake recycling process at least a small bump in respectability, while Halle Bailey will enjoy the success of being a bonafide breakout star as Ariel.
The Little Mermaid is now in theaters.
Source: Variety