‘The Little Mermaid’ in danger of sinking at the overseas box office, and there’s no prizes for guessing why

Despite the best attempts of a rogue band of review-bombers to try and convince the masses that it was an abomination against cinema, The Little Mermaid shrugged off the backlash and negativity to deliver a stellar opening weekend at the box office.

With an estimated first frame of above $120 million and a 95 percent audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, if you can forgive the pun, then things seem to be going swimmingly after IMDb lent an assist by outlining that the underwater epic had been subjected to “unusual voting activity.”

However, that only tells half the story, with overseas audiences proving to be less than enthused by The Little Mermaid, with the Disney live-action remake’s international opening weekend bringing in less than $70 million. It’s not a disaster, but it’s hardly on a par with recent hits like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 or Fast X, and the reasons why have become readily apparent.

French aggregator AlloCiné stated that “we are currently observing an unusual distribution of scores which demands the need for caution,” German outlet Moviepilot had The Little Mermaid being rated as 0.7 out of 10 prior to its theatrical rollout, and Korea’s SBS News offered that the well-reviewed adventure was being targeted by “ratings terrorism.”

Meanwhile, in China – where The Little Mermaid bombed by way of a dismal $2.5 million opening weekend – newspaper The Global Times blasted the Mouse House by saying “the controversy surrounding Disney’s forced inclusion of minorities in classic films is not about racism, but its lazy and irresponsible storytelling strategy.”

It might be a success on home shores, then, but The Little Mermaid seems to be falling victim to the fate everyone saw coming nonetheless.