‘We did not expect the racist reaction’: Nobody’s even trying to hide why ‘The Little Mermaid’ is bombing overseas

It might be flying high at the domestic box office, but The Little Mermaid is severely struggling to make an impact overseas, with the latest in the never-ending line of Disney’s live-action remakes having crossed the $300 million barrier this past weekend.

While that sounds decent enough for a blockbuster that’s only been playing in theaters for a shade over two weeks, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Rob Marshall’s underwater bout of escapism has been under-performing in many international markets, and wide-ranging reports have already underlined the unsavory reasons why.

IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes were far from the only aggregation sites to take a stand against trolls and review-bombers, with the desire to ruin the public’s perception of The Little Mermaid proving to be a global phenomenon. We’ve now reached the point where nobody’s even pretending what’s behind it, with an industry insider lamenting to The Hollywood Reporter that “We did not expect the racist reaction and therefore, for the picture to underperform internationally.”

With a reputed budget north of $200 million – plus the extra marketing and distribution costs – it remains to be seen if The Little Mermaid will even prove to be profitable in the long run. It’s roughly halfway to the figure that analysts estimates it needs in the bank to plunge firmly into the black, but if it keeps on stagnating outside of home shores, then there’s no guarantee it’ll even happen.

If it doesn’t, then expect the trolls and review-bombers to take it as a major victory, while everyone else rues the decline of civilization as we know it.