With Peter Pan & Wendy currently in the midst of a sustained review-bombing campaign since premiering on Disney Plus this past Friday, we can only imagine the exact same thing will happen to The Little Mermaid when the Mouse House’s next live-action remake swims into theaters at the end of next month.
Having been subjected to no shortage of racist backlash – as well as more palatable criticisms that the CGI is fear-inducing as opposed to wholesome – the fact it’s also the longest of the blockbuster do-overs hasn’t done much to encourage those on the fence that sinking two and a half hours of their lives into a movie that doesn’t need to exist is worth their time.
That being said, The Little Mermaid is tracking for a solid-if-unspectacular opening weekend at the domestic box office, at least by the standards of the never-ending production line of Disney do-overs. Per BoxOfficePro, director Rob Marshall’s underwater fantasy is on course for a three-day debut somewhere in the region of $70 million to $90 million.
That’s better than Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin, which did go on to earn over a billion on a global scale, so it’s not quite as disappointing as it first sounds. Then again, we can fully expect the backlash and negativity to grow even louder the closer we get to the film’s release, but it’s surely got enough in the tank not to be a bomb.
The apathy to the remakes continues to grow stronger each time a new one is announced, but The Little Mermaid is likely popular enough that it won’t plummet to the depths.
