For a company that’s all about family-friendly entertainment, the Disney discourse can often be a terrible thing, which The Little Mermaid has been discovering firsthand after concerted review-bombing attempts forced countless websites to step in an try to stem the tide.
Outside of the questionable criticisms that don’t hold much merit, a billion-dollar Mouse House veteran also found himself in hot water, to the extent he ended up deleting his Twitter account entirely. Mena Massoud accidentally opened up a major can of worms when he doubted The Little Mermaid‘s ability to crash through the same box office barrier as his stint headlining a live-action remake did.
Suffice to say, the backlash was relentless, so much so that the Aladdin alum abandoned the bird app entirely. However, with Rob Marshall’s aquatic escapade currently struggling to keep its head above water at the international box office – to the point it may not even turn a profit when all is said and done – it looks like the actor who was accused of being jealous and salty was right all along.
The Little Mermaid may not end up as a catastrophic money-loser, but it’s also being predicted to top out at around the $500-650 million mark on a global scale, which would definitely be a disappointment. If Massoud does decide to return to the battlegrounds of social media, let’s hope he doesn’t announce his triumphant return with an “I told you so,” for his own sake more than anything else given the nature of the unwieldy online beast.