The Little Mermaid Made A Big Splash At The Domestic Box Office, But It's Drowning Overseas
Memorial Day weekend tends to be a big one for the box office, with "Top Gun: Maverick" absolutely shattering records over that coveted spot on the calendar last year. Disney decided to get in on the good this year with the much-discussed live-action remake of "The Little Mermaid." On the one hand, things panned out quite well, with the film doing exceedingly well with audiences in North America. On the other hand, the film has struggled mightily to gain a sizable audience overseas, especially compared to other recent Disney remakes, which could spell trouble. Let's dive into the numbers, shall we?
Director Rob Marshall's "The Little Mermaid" washed ashore with $95.4 million domestically, easily taking the top spot away from "Fast X," per The Numbers. When accounting for the Monday holiday, the film's total grew to $117.5 million. That makes it the fifth-biggest Memorial Day opening ever. Seems great, right? If the overseas numbers matched it, Disney would have reason to pop the champagne. Unfortunately, that's not the world we live in.
The film, which stars Halle Bailey and Melissa McCarthy, took in just $68.3 million internationally from more than 50 markets. That is an exceptionally rough start. With a $185.8 million global opening, the remake is pacing well behind "Beauty and the Beast" ($350 million global debut/$1.26 billion finish) and "Aladdin" ($207.1 million global debut/$1.05 billion finish). That's to say, international audiences simply aren't responding to this new take on Disney's 1989 animated classic with the same level of interest as the studio's other recent remakes.
Big budgets, big problems
Now, under normal circumstances, this still wouldn't be a huge issue. Unfortunately, Disney let the budget get out of control for this one, as it comes with a reported $250 million price tag (before marketing). As such, it's going to struggle to turn a profit even with big domestic numbers such as this. It's a problem the industry has been dealing with for some time, but it's only getting worse. Studios are going to need to reckon with that sooner rather than later, lest we see more movies sell millions of tickets yet still lose money during their theatrical runs. We'll see how things shake out for "The Little Mermaid" in the coming weeks, but with competition such as "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" and "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" on the way, it's tough sledding ahead.
Speaking of movies with big budgets that are going to struggle to turn a profit, "Fast X" dropped 66% in weekend two, taking in just $23 million stateside. That obnoxiously inflated $340 million budget sure looms large now, doesn't it? Fortunately, the film is performing exceedingly well overseas, with $402 million internationally to date. With the $113.5 million domestic total, that puts it at $515.5 million worldwide thus far. What's more, the "Fast & Furious" series has now topped $7 billion overall, making it one of the biggest movie franchises in history. That's pretty remarkable stuff.
Universal is still going to struggle to see a dime of profit from this one, but if they can get the budget down a bit for "Fast & Furious 11," the whole "end of the saga" thing could send the series out with a winner. Either way, it's clear they need to wrap the main series up because these budgets are truly unsustainable.
And the rest...
A trio of other new releases tried and failed to garner much attention from moviegoers over the holiday weekend. Bert Kreischer's "The Machine" ($5 million), Sebastian Maniscalco's "About My Father" ($4.3 million), and Gerard Butler's "Kandahar" ($2.41 million) all proved to be disappointments. What do they have in common? They are not remakes, reboots, or sequels. These are original movies and, if nothing else, this illustrates just how hard it is for originals to find an audience these days. Particularly for comedy. Alas, that's just the way it is right now.
Meanwhile, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" continued to hold strong, taking in another $20.3 million and dropping just 37% in its fourth weekend. That is stellar, particularly compared to the rough ride that Marvel's "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" went on earlier this year during its own theatrical run. James Gunn's finale to the "Guardians" trilogy now stands at $737.1 million worldwide and should have no trouble topping the $800 million mark. All things considered, an unqualified win for Marvel Studios.
Looking ahead, we've got a huge weekend coming up with the much-anticipated "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" hitting theaters alongside Stephen King's "The Boogeyman." Can both of those movies survive? Will the counter-programming strategy work here? Can "The Little Mermaid" avoid falling off a cliff? We shall see.
Top 10 movies at the box office for May 26 — 28, 2023:
1. "The Little Mermaid" — $95.4 million
2. "Fast X" — $23 million
3. "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" — $20.3 million
4. "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" — $6.3 million
5. "The Machine" — $5 million
6. "About My Father" — $4.3 million
7. "Kandahar" — $2.41 million
8. "You Hurt My Feelings" — $1.38 million
9. "Evil Dead Rise" — $1 million
10. "Book Club: The Next Chapter" — $870,000