Disney's Live Action The Little Mermaid

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Yes, you should support the products you like. If you like the little mermaid and the live action remakes, by all means, support it. That's why I said box office numbers are important. It's one measure of engagement from the fans. On the other side, there are many who are sick of them going back to that well. So of course, they aren't going to support it. I am on record that I want the live action remakes to stop. I think they're soulless and not needed. But I won't begrudge anyone who enjoys them. I loved prince of Persia, it lost a ton of money. I'm not going to pretend it was successful. I also don't care if people call it a flop or terrible. I still enjoyed it.

If more people went and saw mermaid I wouldn’t be questioning the missteps and contemplating why more people didn’t see it.

 

[Chi84]

I don’t think Disney is going completely for box office success, but they obviously need their films to be successful. I have no issues with promoting social consciousness, but they need to incorporate it into better movies.

 

[DKampy]

If more people went and saw mermaid I wouldn’t be questioning the missteps and contemplating why more people didn’t see it.

To me some of The so called “missteps” could not have been foreseen… this was green lit in 2018… there was nothing to suggest that TLM would
Not do well just like all of the other remakes…I think domestic is right where it was expected to land here… it is the rest of the world that seems to be off the mark

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

To me some of The so called “missteps” could not have been foreseen… this was green lit in 2018… there was nothing to suggest that TLM would
Not do well just like all of the other remakes…I think domestic is right where it was expected to land here… it is the rest of the world that seems to be off the mark

The remake formula was tenuous at best. If we notice: Disney is getting less return on ALL their IP sequels as time goes on. That could be cyclical or Covid fallout. But other studios are scoring some huge hits.

So there are multiple things to keep an eye on here.

 

[LittleBuford]

To me some of The so called “missteps” could not have been foreseen… this was green lit in 2018… there was nothing to suggest that TLM would
Not do well just like all of the other remakes…I think domestic is right where it was expected to land here… it is the rest of the world that seems to be off the mark

I sort of disagree. I never thought the film would do all that well (because of the nonsensical controversy over the casting) and believe that Disney went into this enterprise knowing that they would probably make less than if they’d kept Ariel white. It’s actually performed better than I personally expected.

 

[LSLS]

I sort of disagree. I never thought the film would do all that well (because of the nonsensical controversy over the casting) and believe that Disney went into this enterprise knowing that they would probably make less than if they’d kept Ariel white. It’s actually performed better than I personally expected.

I HIGHLY doubt that. If they expected it to do what it has done, they would have drastically cut both the production and marketing budgets. The budgets being as high as they are suggests they thought it would do well, and then saw things weren't going as they planned, dumped a ton of money into marketing the movie to no avail. There is next to no chance you are going to convince me Disney decided they were cool with losing a couple hundred million dollars to make a statement.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I HIGHLY doubt that. If they expected it to do what it has done, they would have drastically cut both the production and marketing budgets. The budgets being as high as they are suggests they thought it would do well, and then saw things weren't going as they planned, dumped a ton of money into marketing the movie to no avail. There is next to no chance you are going to convince me Disney decided they were cool with losing a couple hundred million dollars to make a statement.

If not covering budget and doing half (Aladdin) or 1/3 (lion king) what the previous live action that caused mermaid to be greenlit/made did is “better” than we thought?

…we gotta go back to the drawing board here…

 

[BlakeW39]

Suggestion— maybe instead of questioning why everyone else in world DIDN'T turn out for TLM...maybe we should be asking why people in America DID. The U.S. is the outlier here, not the rest of the planet.

 

[LSLS]

If not covering budget and doing half (Aladdin) or 1/3 (lion king) what the previous live action that caused mermaid to be greenlit/made did is “better” than we thought?

…we gotta go back to the drawing board here…

Honestly I could buy they expected to make less money based on the decisions they did, but it's a hard pass for me to believe they still greenlit it with the same budgets in place. If you tell me they expected it to make less, so they decided to cut back and make the movie with say $175 million and a $75 million marketing budget? Alright, I'd buy it. But that they'd greenlight spending more on this than any other live action expecting to do worse than the others? Come on.

 

[DKampy]

I sort of disagree. I never thought the film would do all that well (because of the nonsensical controversy over the casting) and believe that Disney went into this enterprise knowing that they would probably make less than if they’d kept Ariel white. It’s actually performed better than I personally expected.

Why I think it is doing about as expected… I am accounting for inflation being much higher as well as the controversy…I don’t think as many people care about the Ariel controversy…especially among those that would actually be interested in seeing TLM…the people who are upset by it are just screaming loud….and most of them are not in the demographic anyway…it is affecting it some, but that is being offset by inflation… causing it to not run too far behind Aladdin… at least domestically

 

[Basil of Baker Street]

Stick a dinglehopper in it. It’s done.

 

[erasure fan1]

I HIGHLY doubt that. If they expected it to do what it has done, they would have drastically cut both the production and marketing budgets. The budgets being as high as they are suggests they thought it would do well, and then saw things weren't going as they planned, dumped a ton of money into marketing the movie to no avail. There is next to no chance you are going to convince me Disney decided they were cool with losing a couple hundred million dollars to make a statement.

Yea, I have to agree. There's no chance Disney thought this would lose money. We are talking about a company that put microchips on soda cups to save pennies. If they thought it would lose money, they would have sacrificed it to the D+ beast. That way no one is really talking about it. But yea, you don't spend that much money on a film to not expect it to profit.

 

[DKampy]

Honestly I could buy they expected to make less money based on the decisions they did, but it's a hard pass for me to believe they still greenlit it with the same budgets in place. If you tell me they expected it to make less, so they decided to cut back and make the movie with say $175 million and a $75 million marketing budget? Alright, I'd buy it. But that they'd greenlight spending more on this than any other live action expecting to do worse than the others? Come on.

To be fair the budget was not originally that high… Covid precautions raised the budget which was unforeseen at the time Disney gave TLM the green light

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Honestly I could buy they expected to make less money based on the decisions they did, but it's a hard pass for me to believe they still greenlit it with the same budgets in place. If you tell me they expected it to make less, so they decided to cut back and make the movie with say $175 million and a $75 million marketing budget? Alright, I'd buy it. But that they'd greenlight spending more on this than any other live action expecting to do worse than the others? Come on.

No one with a straight face can convince themselves in the mirror that Disney didn’t expect $1 billion in box office here. Maybe a $800-$1.2 range? Possible. But not like $525

Why I think it is doing about as expected… I am accounting for inflation being much higher as well as the controversy…I don’t think as many people care about the Ariel controversy…especially among those that would actually be interested in seeing TLM…the people who are upset by it are just screaming loud….and most of them are not in the demographic anyway…it is affecting it some, but that is being offset by inflation… causing it to not run too far behind Aladdin… at least domestically

You’re math is still fuzzy. Some movies are hits…others are disappointments…

But no studio approves a $250,000,000 budget expecting $500,000,000 back.
They would be fired for “arithmetic” then.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

To be fair the budget was not originally that high… Covid precautions raised the budget which was unforeseen at the time Disney gave TLM the green light

$125 mil in hand sanitizer?

 

[DKampy]

No one with a straight face can convince themselves in the mirror that Disney didn’t expect $1 billion in box office here. Maybe a $800-$1.2 range? Possible. But not like $525

You’re math is still fuzzy. Some movies are hits…others are disappointments…

But no studio approves a $250,000,000 budget expecting $500,000,000 back.
They would be fired for “arithmetic” then.

I am not disagreeing with you here…I said domestic is about what was expected….it is the rest
Of the world that was not… unfortunately they figured and needed both and there was no reason to think they would not have…given their history with remakes

 

[Indy_UK]

Mermaid doesn't look like it's going to break even and pass the $560 Million global box office number it needs to do that.

Goes back to what I said previously, who in Disney is allowing these kind of budgets to happen?

For a company who is rightfully getting known for Nickel and Diming, it’s like they have got into the mindset that making profits on a movie doesn’t matter?

You’re only going to make PROFIT when production costs are sensible. They can’t produce every movie for this kind of money and expect it to get returns like The Force Awakens, Avengers and Avatar

 

[DKampy]

$125 mil in hand sanitizer?

Never said it was not high to begin with… just like having all the facts

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

Why on earth would you let someone else tell you what to see or whether or not you’ll enjoy it? It’s possible for people to enjoy things that you personally don’t like. You’re right - it is the same thing but different subjects.

A very large portion of the population reads/watches movie reviews/ratings before they decide to see a movie.

I assumed we all joined this forum to because we enjoy seeing what everyone else thinks about the new things coming to WDW. And how they feel about Disney's new films/shows.

Is everyone excited? Or not excited?

If it is exciting, tell us why. That's why I'm looking to read, and I'm not really getting that vibe from anyone in this thread. Everyone just seems kind of unhappy.

 

[Disney Irish]

No one with a straight face can convince themselves in the mirror that Disney didn’t expect $1 billion in box office here. Maybe a $800-$1.2 range? Possible. But not like $525

You’re math is still fuzzy. Some movies are hits…others are disappointments…

But no studio approves a $250,000,000 budget expecting $500,000,000 back.
They would be fired for “arithmetic” then.

Its going to be seen as a success domestic and a failure worldwide, a large part of it is going to be blamed on budget some of which isn't Disney's fault due to the legally required added expense of Covid precautions.

How that shakes out within the walls of TWDC is anyone's guess. But it won't deter them from making more live action remakes, more of which were confirmed just yesterday.