discussion The Little Mermaid bombs overseas with $68m, fails to match Dumbo live action remake

[Jessie]

14 minutes ago, Blade Runner said:

Sigh, to be honest. 

 

Trolls, incels, and in general bad people are winning the cultural wars so bad. 

I would argue the whole look of the film being so…washed out and the uncanny valley photo realism finally reaching its sell by date is what is all adding up here and people shouldn’t be giving too much credence to the cultural war argument when the bigger issue and the one more concerning for Disney long term is how audiences are now trained to know that these movies are available on Disney+ for a monthly subscription, especially as so many recent Live Action remakes (Pinocchio, Peter Pan and Wendy, Cruella etc etc) have debuted on the platform either exclusively or day and date.
 

There is weakened incentive to go to the cinema for a been there, done that visual retelling when the theatrical exclusivity window is so short and the Disney streaming brand is so strong and interlinked with their IP.

 

Even with the same exact marketing this movie would have made so much more bank back in 2019 OW. Even if The Lion King remake came out now Mario would be running rings round it at the Box Office and I doubt they would even bother giving Dumbo a theatre run.

[Peroxide]

10 minutes ago, DONTYELLATME said:

I think Zendaya in the role would have definitely made the movie open more. Halle isn’t known enough and Zendaya is one of the few POC women to be a superstar and could have convinced audiences worldwide more.
 

I think people want live action remakes to look exactly like the original since these movies are made for nostalgia. If you change the original character you lose that nostalgia. 

But Zendaya isn’t one tenth the vocalist Halle is… she would have dragged the movie down if anything.

[Eat The Acid]

The live action is one of the better ones. Halle truly shone! She was perfectly cast in the role!

[Riot]

#TheLittleMermaid    Top10 markets at Global #BoxOffice

 

#US & #Canada 95.5M
#Mexico 8.5M
#UK 6.3M
#Italy 4.7M
#Australia 4M
#Brazil 4M
#France 3.6M
#Spain 3.6M
#Korea 2.8M
#Argentina 2.5M

 

Not a single country over 10M other than the US? How is that even possible?

[prézli]

Good. I mean, it's great to see Disney losing money.

[DONTYELLATME]

4 minutes ago, Peroxide said:

But Zendaya isn’t one tenth the vocalist Halle is… she would have dragged the movie down if anything.

Yeah Halle is talented and better but Zendaya is popular with everyone and with how well liked she is she could have convinced audiences to give a Black Ariel a chance. It was always a risk putting a POC Ariel so Zendaya could have cushion the backlash a bit

Edited May 28, 2023 by DONTYELLATME

[Badgalbriel]

That's a shame. I love the movie and I love Halle

[Breathe On Moi]

2 minutes ago, Riot said:

#TheLittleMermaid    Top10 markets at Global #BoxOffice

 

#US & #Canada 95.5M
#Mexico 8.5M
#UK 6.3M
#Italy 4.7M
#Australia 4M
#Brazil 4M
#France 3.6M
#Spain 3.6M
#Korea 2.8M
#Argentina 2.5M

 

Not a single country over 10M other than the US? How is that even possible?

most/all of those countries are known to be racist tbh, no matter how hard some of them try to say “but we have free health care and siestas!” 

[Jessie]

22 minutes ago, Trent W said:

Damn I hope this doesn’t affects Halle’s career, she’s so talented and has such a great future im music and film.

 

She was just caught up in the middle of a culture war.

Cultural critics loved her performance even when they were critical of the movie as a whole, she is an undeniable screen star and she’s going to cement that even further with The Color Purple later this year and she has a great working relationship with Disney. She is going to be booked and busy for sure and in my gut I feel like she is going to wind up being one of the acclaimed actresses of her generation if she continues to pick the right roles.

[Aethereal]

16 minutes ago, DONTYELLATME said:

Well Alice was during the 3D fad, and came right after avatar and Johnny depp and Tim burton were at their height. 
 
maleficent was probably cause Angelina fit the role so perfect and a big name, but it’s not an Aladdin or beauty and the beast hit 

Maleficent was not part of Disney renaissance movies and it was centered towards the villain which  would make the movie even less nostalgic and not as appropriate for children.

 

Edited May 28, 2023 by Aristotle

[Shelter]

1 billion cancelled 

[AcidPrince]

Racism. Thats the word. 

[Darkgalord]

A mess 

Edited May 28, 2023 by Darkgalord

[Mokichi]

Disgusting to see racism still winning in 2023

[simon]

Halle was amazing!

 

Disney will make the money back through merchandise sales 

[Shelter]

Aladdin did 122 million. After Mena was dragged for that tweet.  

[cat1867]

21 minutes ago, Peroxide said:

But Zendaya isn’t one tenth the vocalist Halle is… she would have dragged the movie down if anything.

 In all the big foreign foreign markets, the movie is dubbed so the audience isn't hearing Halle's voice. This prevents her vocal power for making up for her lack of star power.

[vasymollo]

32 minutes ago, jjmed59 said:

meh it did excellent domestically, idrgaf if the rest of the world paid it dust. this doesnt take away from halle’s amazing portrayal and wont hinder her career in any way. it is still very much going to launch her into stardom. 

 

sad to see how hateful the world’s become though! this movie has been facing an uphill battle since its announcement, with people actively rooting for it to fail. furthermore, disney also had a hand in this. its disappointing they waited for the live action adaptation fatigue to get so bad to finally release the little mermaid. arguably shouldve been among the first remakes considering it saved disney’s a$$ back in the day. no matter how good the movie turns out, people are already set on hating and rejecting these live actions. v worried for snow white.

it actually will hinder her career. the movie needed to make big money overseas to even break even. studios will not be willing to put her as the lead on another big movie if she couldn't make this work. it's unfortunate, but they care more about the bottom line. 

[Life Savers]

It would have done just as badly with Zendaya in Asia and maybe marginally better in Europe. You know damn well Halle's "star power" is not the reason why the movie is flopping there

 

With that being said I'm glad the US did give it a chance and it has good word of mouth that should help keep it afloat. You should also keep in mind that Disney actually makes most of its money from movie merchandise, which will sell well in the US as well.

Edited May 28, 2023 by Life Savers

[Aethereal]

1 hour ago, Nux said:

Abysmal numbers...no way this is hitting $600M+ to break even

 

Good luck to Snow White next year

Probably will do less than $250M overall internationally. 

China's runs are always frontloaded and TLM was bigger outside of China so it will probably outsell Dumbo internationally too but not by much. 

 

Edited May 28, 2023 by Aristotle

[simon]

I agree this was the only movie that didn’t have a mega star. Aladdin had Will Smith, Lion King had Beyoncé, Beauty and the Beast had Emma Watson, etc. They all grossed over a billion.

 

I don’t want to make it all about racism, when lack of international star power in the film played a role as well. 

[QueenBeyoncé]

racist fks

[Shelter]

1 minute ago, simon said:

I agree this was the only movie that didn’t have a mega star. Aladdin had Will Smith, Lion King had Beyoncé, Beauty and the Beast had Emma Watson, etc. They all grossed over a billion.

 

I don’t want to make it all about racism, when lack of international star power in the film played a role as well. 

Those 3 originals were much bigger than the original TLM though. They were more popular to begin with. 

[DONTYELLATME]

11 minutes ago, Life Savers said:

It would have done just as badly with Zendaya in Asia and maybe marginally better in Europe. You know damn well Halle's "star power" is not the reason why the movie is flopping there

 

With that being said I'm glad the US did give it a chance and it has good word of mouth that should help keep it afloat. You should also keep in mind that Disney actually makes most of its money from movie merchandise, which will sell well in the US as well.

They race swapped the genie in Aladdin with a charismatic and loved POC actor and it made bank. I’m not saying zendaya wouldn’t have faced racism but it could have drawn star power or could have convinced the ignorant. You have to be realistic, but they went the more artistic route and I applaud them for that anyways. 
 

But then again I don’t know if Disney wanted a POC Ariel from the beginning, and Halle was just so talented the director just chose her and Disney agreed. 

Edited May 28, 2023 by DONTYELLATME

[Gabe²]

6 minutes ago, simon said:

I agree this was the only movie that didn’t have a mega star. Aladdin had Will Smith, Lion King had Beyoncé, Beauty and the Beast had Emma Watson, etc. They all grossed over a billion.

 

I don’t want to make it all about racism, when lack of international star power in the film played a role as well. 

Is Emma Watson a box office star? Besides the Harry porter movies does she have other hits? Because while Emma is known she is not a box office draw