‘The Little Mermaid’ Global Box Office to Pass Animated Original

During an opening weekend that was more dramatic than most movies, Disney’s The Little Mermaid ended up grossing $163.8 million worldwide, falling short of projections by around $20 million. Most of the discrepancy could be attributed to a soft global opening, which came in at around $68 million. But a couple of days after it was expected to, the big-budget live-action remake of the classic 1989 animated film has finally passed the $200 million mark at the worldwide box office.

The Little Mermaid has made $130 million domestically and another $79 million from overseas territories, for a running global haul of $209 million. The movie cost a reported $250 million to produce (minus marketing), which means that there is an ocean currently separating it from success. The Little Mermaid grossed $38 million domestically on opening day, setting it up for a four-day extended weekend haul of $125 million. But it ultimately ended up making $117 million across four days at the domestic box office. Globally, the movie was expected to hit $80 million in its opening weekend, but it fell short of this figure by around $12 million.

A great comp heading into the weekend was Disney’s last major live-action remake, Aladdin, which delivered a virtually identical opening weekend haul during the same frame in 2019. That film legged it to over $350 million domestically and more than $1 billion worldwide, on the back of mixed reviews. Critical reception for The Little Mermaid has also been mixed, although it received an excellent A CinemaScore from opening day audiences. Collider’s Ross Bonaime called it “one of the rare live-action remakes that manages to capture that Disney magic” in his review.

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The original film was directed by John Musker and Ron Clements and grossed $211 million at the global box office — a figure that the remake will surpass today. By comparison, the original The Lion King made over $750 million worldwide in its initial run, while its remake grossed more than $1.6 billion globally just a few years ago. That figure looks completely out of reach for The Little Mermaid, but anything close to Aladdin’s billion-dollar global haul should be considered a major win (although those low foreign grosses are concerning).

Disney’s Live-Action Remakes Have Been Hit-Or-Miss

Directed by Disney veteran Rob Marshall (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Mary Poppins Returns), The Little Mermaid comes on the heels of over a dozen live-action remakes of classic Disney titles. The run has been inconsistent, to say the least. While a handful of these remakes have done exceptionally well at the box office — four films, including Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King, have grossed over $1 billion worldwide — a bunch of them flopped, and some were restricted to streaming-only releases. But considering the enduring popularity of the source material, it makes sense for the Mouse House to have allocated such a massive budget to The Little Mermaid remake; the studio understandably has optimistic expectations for it.

Starring newcomer Halle Bailey as the titular character, the film also features Melissa McCarthy as the villainous Ursula, Jonah Hauer-King, Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, Javier Bardem, Jacob Tremblay, Noma Dumezweni, and Art Malik. You can watch an interview with Bailey and Hauer-King here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.