Disney's Live Action The Little Mermaid

[LittleBuford]

Maybe because the other renaissance films all made over a billion and this one didn't come close?

Yet the film itself is curiously missing from the discussion. I defy anyone to argue that The Lion King is a better remake than The Little Mermaid, even if it made a lot more money. But so focused has this thread become on issues of profitability (mainly to serve the "Disney is failing" narrative) that any consideration of the film's strengths and weaknesses, both in themselves and relative to those of the other remakes, has been very much sidelined. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised given that many (and perhaps most) of those posting here haven't even seen it!

 

[erasure fan1]

Yet the film itself is curiously missing from the discussion. I defy anyone to argue that The Lion King is a better remake than The Little Mermaid, even if it made a lot more money. But so focused has this thread become on issues of profitability (mainly to serve the "Disney is failing" narrative) that any consideration of the film's strengths and weaknesses, both in themselves and relative to those of the other remakes, has been very much sidelined.

The answers in the question as they say. Lion king was terrible in my opinion. Aladdin and Beast weren't much better in my eyes but they all were in the billion dollar club. That makes this a talking point. If the movie made close to a billion or more, the thread goes quietly into the night. But when a movie like this, that everyone pegged for at least 750/800mil, and it doesn't come close, people are going to talk about it.

 

[LittleBuford]

The answers in the question as they say. Lion king was terrible in my opinion. Aladdin and Beast weren't much better in my eyes but they all were in the billion dollar club. That makes this a talking point. If the movie made close to a billion or more, the thread goes quietly into the night. But when a movie like this, that everyone pegged for at least 750/800mil, and it doesn't come close, people are going to talk about it.

Again, they’re not talking about it, but around it. One needs to actually see a film to have an informed opinion on whether it’s any good or not.

 

[erasure fan1]

Again, they’re not talking about it, but around it. One needs to actually see a film to have an informed opinion on whether it’s any good or not.

Agreed. But hasn't the vast majority of the thread, since a week or so after the film released, been about the box office and profitablity of the film? That's what's been driving the discussion.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Agreed. But hasn't the vast majority of the thread, since a week or so after the film released, been about the box office and profitablity of the film? That's what's been driving the discussion.

By people who don’t really care. Who were going to find a reason to keep going no matter what. Just like there was always a reason to keep going when the box office wasn’t an issue. Even now, people are bending over backwards to make international issues into domestic issues because that’s the agenda they’re pushing.

 

[Phroobar]

My wife is rewatching Once Upon A Time.
We are at the point where Ariel shows up to help Captain Hook with something silly. JoAnna Garcia Swisher made a great Ariel.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Agreed. But hasn't the vast majority of the thread, since a week or so after the film released, been about the box office and profitablity of the film? That's what's been driving the discussion.

I think for most of us this thread stopped being about the Little Mermaid about 150 pages ago, it became a catch all thread to discuss box office, budgets, costs, what percent of the take the studio gets, etc, etc, etc. Stuff that we found interesting.

Someone even started a new thread from this one to specifically talk about box office results that has had about the same number of replies as this one over the last couple weeks, about 30 pages worth.

Most threads here derail and go off topic, the discussion goes where the discussion goes. If we limited ourselves strictly to thread titles we’d have a million threads with 5 responses each.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

My wife is rewatching Once Upon A Time.
We are at the point where Ariel shows up to help Captain Hook with something silly. JoAnna Garcia Swisher made a great Ariel.

Yeah…but Nick swisher is still a
Dunkus

 

[LittleBuford]

The story of the film’s popularity in the Philippines, where it’s the top release of the year so far, is fascinating to me.

Fan enthusiasm trounces negativity: How ‘Little Mermaid’ became PH’s No. 1 film

Bailey singing “Part of Your World” in “American Idol” Disney’s live-action adaptation of the 1989 animation “The Little Mermaid” may have underwhelmed at the tills in some key movie

entertainment.inquirer.net

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The story of the film’s popularity in the Philippines, where it’s the top release of the year so far, is fascinating to me.

Fan enthusiasm trounces negativity: How ‘Little Mermaid’ became PH’s No. 1 film

Bailey singing “Part of Your World” in “American Idol” Disney’s live-action adaptation of the 1989 animation “The Little Mermaid” may have underwhelmed at the tills in some key movie

entertainment.inquirer.net

That is a weird enigma…I bet no one predicted that?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Maybe it just introduces some nuance. The Phillipines is a completely different country and culture than, say, South Korea.

Yeah…but it didn’t do gangbusters in Japan, Australia or New Zealand either…

That Philippines tally really is an outlier

 

[Tha Realest]

Maybe it just introduces some nuance. The Phillipines is a completely different country and culture than, say, South Korea.

There was no nuance in the repeated slurs against Asians for the low box office for this film. One poster slandered Asians as committing a “moral failure” for not supporting this movie. I said at the time that “Asians” should not be looked at monolithically.

 

[Tha Realest]

Two days ago a frequent poster proclaimed it was a “moral failure” that a race/ethnicity he treats as a monolith (and a minority within the United States that has experienced tremendous racism in recent years) seems to have chosen not to see a movie. Look back a few pages.

My post of a few weeks ago

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Yeah…but it didn’t do gangbusters in Japan, Australia or New Zealand either…

That Philippines tally really is an outlier

Going beyond the issue of blurring a lot of very different countries and cultures into 'Asia', I don't know that's entirely true. It has done quite well in Australia (only a 10% drop in its 6th week last week and still the #3 film) and in Japan it seems to be Disney's most successful film this year.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Maybe it just introduces some nuance. The Phillipines is a completely different country and culture than, say, South Korea.

Or, more to the point, China. Which is the market Hollywood really cares about.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Going beyond the issue of blurring a lot of very different countries and cultures into 'Asia', I don't know that's entirely true. It has done quite well in Australia (only a 10% drop in its 6th week last week and still the #3 film) and in Japan it seems to be Disney's most successful film this year.

Solid for the market…I guess?

But not really an impressive take in any country outside perhaps the Philippines…including the US

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Solid for the market…I guess?

But not really an impressive take in any country outside perhaps the Philippines…including the US

Well, I guess everyone interested in calculating inflation can also start factoring exchange rates into their estimations of how well the film has done.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Well, I guess everyone interested in calculating inflation can also start factoring exchange rates into their estimations of how well the film has done.

Made $530,000,000 worldwide

Needed to make minimum $640,000,000 (likely a good bit more) for Disney to real $1 in profit from the box office

Take the “under”

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Made $530,000,000 worldwide

Needed to make minimum $640,000,000 (likely a good bit more) for Disney to real $1 in profit from the box office

Take the “under”

You don't have any inside sources, so from where are you getting those numbers?

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Given the unprecedented headwinds and hatred faced by this film and only this film, it has overperformed.