Internet trolls sank Disney's The Little Mermaid remake?

Halle Bailey as Ariel and Jon Hauer-King as Prince Eric in Disney's The Little Mermaid

The long The trend could be the growing importance of overseas box office revenue for Hollywood studios, but Disney's The Little Mermaid weekend numbers hark back to an earlier time when the domestic market was all the attention. This remake of the 1989 animated film made $95.4 million over the weekend in North America (and $117.5 million including Memorial Day Monday), but only $68.3 million in international territories.

In contrast, Universal's Fast X debuted last week with $67 million in North America and $251.5 million overseas — though to be fair, Fast & The Furious franchise has long been known for its particularly high international appeal.

The Little Mermaid performed well in its main international market in Mexico (with a $8.5 million debut) and well in the UK/Ireland (£5 million, or $6.3 million) – the latter influenced by an abundance of roasts sun at the start of the season. semi-annual school holidays. But performance looks especially weak in South Korea (only the eighth largest international market with a debut of $2.8 million), China (11th largest and $2.5 million) and Germany (12th largest and 2. $4 million).

And it's perhaps no coincidence that it was in these weaker territories that the choice of black actress Halle Bailey to play the lead role of the mermaid Ariel seemed to be the subject of controversy. Hollywood sales agency Deadline reported that the film was «surveillance bombarded» by internet trolls, many of whom are believed not to have actually seen this version of The Little Mermaid.

In the Internet Movie Database, a user rating message reads: “Our rating engine has detected unusual voting activity on this title. To maintain the robustness of our rating system, an alternative weight calculation has been applied.» The film has an unweighted average of 4.7 out of 10, with almost 40% of users giving the film a minimum rating of 1 out of 10.

The site's algorithm has adjusted this user rating to 7.0 out of 10. The site does not disclose how its rating mechanisms work (as it wants to protect them from matched attacks), but options may include ignoring the votes of newly registered users, those who have rated very few games , and users whose vote structure today has an extremely negative bias.

Deadline reported that in Germany, Moviepilot initially had a dismal rating of 0.7/10 before release, which has since risen to 4.9/10. garnering hundreds of likes, and positive reviews receiving hundreds of negative reviews.On the day of release, the rating was 1.96, and since then it has risen to 6.67.

Another industry publication, Variety, reported a disappointing box office performance in China. The state-controlled Chinese tabloid The Global Times commented that «it takes an incredible leap of imagination to accept the new cast», given that «many Chinese netizens have said that, like Snow White, the image of the mermaid princess in Hans Christian's fairy tales Andersen has changed. has long been rooted in their hearts.”

Fast X hit in China. Photo: Universal Pictures

The editors insisted that this was not about racism, but about «a lazy and irresponsible storytelling strategy.» The next day, another editorial commented: “Several netizens from Western countries on Twitter attacked the Chinese audience, claiming that the low box office is due to racial discrimination. This is done to impose their politically correct standards on Chinese audiences and use it to sow discord between China and African groups.”

Variety noted that the release of The Little Mermaid «raised again the question of how willing Chinese audiences are to watch films with famous black characters.» It's perhaps fitting that Black Panther, set in Wakanda, grossed $105 million in China in 2018 — 16 percent of its $649 million overseas total. By comparison, in the same year, Avengers: Infinity War grossed $360 million in China, 26% of the total $1.37 billion overseas.

Real-time (or photorealistic) remakes of classic Disney animated films have varied widely over the years, as have the proportions they have achieved domestically in North America and overseas. It's also worth considering that the original The Little Mermaid grossed more in North America ($111.5 million) than overseas ($99.8 million), although this partly reflects the less developed state of international box office in 1989.

Disney can at least take solace in the fact that The Little Mermaid was released to theaters—successfully in North America and mixed results abroad—after a series of animated remakes that either premiered on Disney+ streaming service (Peter Pan and Wendy, Pinocchio and Lady and the Tramp) or hybrid versions were released during the Covid pandemic era (Mulan).

Chris Pratt in Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Image Credit & Copyright: AP

Meanwhile, last weekend's box office in the UK and Ireland saw a so-so market volume of £10.3m — a disappointing result considering strong titles are currently being released (The Little Mermaid, Fast X and Guardians of the Galaxy 3). , and well below the total market of £19.8m for the equivalent session in 2022 when Top Gun: Maverick arrived.

The weekend's strong sun proved dangerous for cinema operators, who will now be hoping for steady business during the semi-annual holiday. How far this business extends to in-game films remains to be seen — the top three titles collectively pulled in 86 percent of the UK and Ireland box office over the weekend, with dozens of other films vying for cuts. Our chart of the top 10 films of the weekend below shows just how asymmetrical the current market is, with the best film grossing 79 times as much at the box office as the film, finishing in 10th place.

Top 10 films at the UK and Ireland box office, May 26–28

1. The Little Mermaid, £5.01 million across 724 sites (new)

2. Fast X, £2.26m from 646 sites. Total: £10.2 million (2 weeks)

3. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, £1.59m across 684 sites. Total: £31.7 million (4 weeks)

4. Super Mario Bros movie, £292,000 at 611 sites. Total: £52.3 million (8 weeks)

5. Hypnotic £217,000 across 413 sites (new)

6. Sisu £145,000 across 282 sites (new)

7. Are you here God? It's me, Margaret, £95,000 from 407 sites. Total: £617,000 (2 weeks)

8. Tomorrow X Together World Tour, £67,000 across 88 sites (new)

9. Royal Ballet: Sleeping Beauty, £64,400 at 84 venues. Total: £448,000 (2 weeks)

10. Beau Is Afraid, £63,300 across 157 sites. Total: £429,000 (2 weeks)

Thanks to Comscore; @cSMoviesUK