©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection
Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid is making waves at the domestic box office this weekend, grossing a total of $38 million on opening day.
The fantasy film, which opens in 4,320 cinemas, is expected to gross between 120 and 130 million US dollars over the four-day Memorial Day weekend.
The musical remake, starring Halle Bailey as the mermaid princess Ariel, grossed $10.3 million in sneak previews Thursday, making it the seventh-highest grossing film for a G or PG rating. That puts the film on track to gross well over $100 million over the holiday weekend. With a production budget of $250 million, The Little Mermaid needs to be a box office success to make a reasonable return.
The film is estimated to gross about $28 million this weekend over the four-day bank holiday weekend, easily second only to The Little Mermaid.
It is expected that “Almost
Directed by Rob Marshall, The Little Mermaid also stars Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Javier Bardem as King Triton, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian the Crab, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder the Fish and Awkwafina as Scuttle the seabird. It has received mixed reviews and currently ranks at 66% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, Variety’s Peter Debruge gushed in his review, “Halle Bailey is the only reason any audience should justify Disney reviving this classic.”