The Little Mermaid makes splash at box office

Mermaid
(Courtesy of The Walt Disney Company

Disney’s The Little Mermaid sang her way into America’s hearts over the Memorial Day weekend, topping the box office top ten list and earning a solid $95.5 million in domestic ticket sales against 4 other new films also debuting on the top ten over the weekend.

It’s estimated to have made over $118 million over the four days since its release. 

The Little Mermaid, visionary filmmaker Rob Marshall’s live-action reimagining of the studio’s Oscar-winning animated musical classic, is the beloved story of Ariel, a beautiful and spirited young mermaid with a thirst for adventure.

The youngest of King Triton’s daughters and the most defiant, Ariel longs to find out more about the world beyond the sea and, while visiting the surface, falls for the dashing Prince Eric. While mermaids are forbidden to interact with humans, Ariel must follow her heart. She makes a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, which gives her a chance to experience life on land but ultimately places her life – and her father’s crown – in jeopardy.

The film stars singer and actress Halle Bailey as Ariel; Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric; Tony Award winner Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian; Awkwafina as the voice of Scuttle; Jacob Tremblay as the voice of Flounder; Noma Dumezweni as Queen Selina; Art Malik as Sir Grimsby; with Oscar winner Javier Bardem as King Triton; and two-time Academy Award nominee Melissa McCarthy as Ursula.

The Little Mermaid is directed by Oscar nominee Rob Marshall, and produced by two-time Emmy winner Marc Platt, three-time Tony Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emmy winner John DeLuca, and Rob Marshall, with Jeffrey Silver serving as executive producer.

The songs feature music from multiple Academy Award winner Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman, who together won two Oscars for the music in the original animated The Little Mermaid, and new lyrics by Lin Manuel Miranda. The score is by Alan Menken, with music supervised and produced by Mike Higham.

Last week Fast X seized the number one spot at the box office and raked in an impressive $67.5 million. The tenth installment of the heart-stopping, action-packed series filled with high-speed car chases began in 2001 with The Fast And The Furious. This high-octane franchise has since amassed a jaw-dropping $6 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film franchise in Universal’s 111-year history.

This week the film dropped 66% and was knocked out of the top spot, down to #2, earning $23 million over the weekend and almost $108 million thus far. 

Fast X brings back Vin Diesel as Dom Toretto, with a spectacular supporting cast including Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Jason Momoa, John Cena, Jason Statham, Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron, Brie Larson, and Rita Moreno. In this chapter, Dom and his family face their most formidable opponent in the person of Dante Reyes, played by Momoa. Dante is fueled by revenge as he commits to destroying everything in his path and everyone who has meaning in Dom’s life. As typical for the series, audiences are showing more enthusiasm than critics, with Fast X scoring an 85% audience score while critics are mixed and have declared it  54% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 didn’t have quite a dramatic drop, earning an additional $20 million in its fourth weekend and taking the #3 spot, a drop of only 38% from last weekend. In its opening three days, GotG 3 grossed 81% of the box office total.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie was able to take the #4 spot on the box office top ten in its eighth week, earning $6.3 million and only dropping by 35% from last weekend. Since its release Mario has now earned a whopping $1.3 billion at the box office.

Sony’s The Machine was one this weekend’s other new wide releases The action-comedy brought in $4.9 million and finished in 5th place.

The official synopsis of The Machine reads:

Bert Kreischer rose to fame as a stand-up comedian known as The Machine, and in his signature set he recounts his true experience with Russian mobsters while on a booze-soaked college trip. Now, 23 years later, that trip has come back to haunt him as he and his estranged father (Mark Hamill) are kidnapped back to Russia by the mob to atone for something they say he did. Together, Bert and his father must retrace the steps of his younger self (Jimmy Tatro) in the midst of a war within a sociopathic crime family, all while attempting to find common ground in their often fraught relationship. The film is directed by Peter Atencio, written by Kevin Biegel and Scotty Landes, and based on The Comedy of Bert Kreischer. 

Lionsgate’s About My Father, another new release, also made the top ten list by taking the #6 spot, earning $4.25 million at the box office. Another comedy film, the official synopsis of About My Father reads:

The hottest comic in America, Sebastian Maniscalco joins forces with legendary Italian-American and two-time Oscar winner, Robert De Niro, in the new comedy About My Father. The film centers around Sebastian (Maniscalco) who is encouraged by his fiancée (Leslie Bibb) to bring his immigrant, hairdresser father, Salvo (De Niro), to a weekend get-together with her super-rich and exceedingly eccentric family (Kim Cattrall, Anders Holm, Brett Dier, David Rasche). The weekend develops into what can only be described as a culture clash, leaving Sebastian and Salvo to discover that the great thing about family is everything about family.

About My Father is directed by Laura Terruso and written by Austen Earl & Sebastian Maniscalco.

Yet another new release, Kandahar starring Gerard Butler earned $2.4 million at the box office and took the #7 spot. Tom Harris (Butler), an undercover CIA operative, is stuck deep in hostile territory in Afghanistan. When an intelligence leak exposes his identity and mission, he must fight his way out, alongside his Afghan translator, to an extraction point in Kandahar, all whilst avoiding the elite special forces unit tasked with hunting them down. The film has received lackluster reviews and is currently 43% rotten according to Rotten Tomatoes critics scores, but audiences don’t seem to hate it and have given it a 79% audience score. 

The last new release to hit the top ten list is A24’s You Hurt My Feelings starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies, Michaela Watkins, Arian Moayed, Owen Teague, Jeannie Berlin and is Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener. The film brought in $1.4 million and earned the #8 spot on the Box Office top ten list. 

Rounding out the top ten list is Evil Dead Rise at #9, earning just over $1 million and Book Club: The Next Chapter earning $920 thousand and taking the #10 spot. 


REELated:


The Top 10

1. The Little Mermaid (Disney) NEW – Cinemascore: A; Metacritic: 59; Est. budget: $250 million

$95,500,000 in 4,320 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $; Cumulative: $95,500,000

2. Fast X (Universal) Week 2; Last weekend #1

$23,020,000 (-66%) in 4,008 (+2) theaters; PTA: $5,631; Cumulative: $107,955,000

3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Disney) Week 4; Last weekend #2

$20,000,000 (-%) in 3,940 (-510) theaters; PTA: $; Cumulative: $299,400,000

4. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Universal) Week 8; Last weekend #3; also on PVOD

$6,270,000 (-35%) in 3,148 (-392) theaters; PTA: $1,992; Cumulative: $558,882,000

5. The Machine (Sony) NEW – Metacritic: 38; Est. budget: $20 million

$4,900,000 in 2,409 theaters; PTA: $2,034; Cumulative: $4,900,000

6. About My Father (Lionsgate) NEW – Cinemascore: B+; Metacritic: 37; Est. budget: $29 million

$4,250,000 in 2,464 theaters; PTA: $1,725; Cumulative: $4,250,000

7. Kandahar (Open Road/Briarcliff) NEW – Cinemascore: B+; Metacritic: 52

$2,410,000 in 2,105 theaters; PTA: $1,145; Cumulative: $2,410,000

8. You Hurt My Feelings (A24) NEW – Metacritic: 82

$1,389,000 in 912 theaters; PTA: $1,523; Cumulative: $1,389,000

9. Evil Dead Rise (Warner Bros. Discovery) Week 6; Last weekend #5; also on PVOD

$1,052,000 (-57%) in 921 (-1,252) theaters; PTA: $1,142; Cumulative: $66,200,000

10. Book Club: The Next Chapter (Focus) Week 2; Last weekend #4

$920,000 (-69%) in 1,312 (-2,174) theaters; PTA: $687; Cumulative: $16,132,000


Follow us on Facebook!


Mermaid
(Courtesy of The Walt Disney Company

Disney’s The Little Mermaid sang her way into America’s hearts over the Memorial Day weekend, topping the box office top ten list and earning a solid $95.5 million in domestic ticket sales against 4 other new films also debuting on the top ten over the weekend.

It’s estimated to have made over $118 million over the four days since its release. 

The Little Mermaid, visionary filmmaker Rob Marshall’s live-action reimagining of the studio’s Oscar-winning animated musical classic, is the beloved story of Ariel, a beautiful and spirited young mermaid with a thirst for adventure.

The youngest of King Triton’s daughters and the most defiant, Ariel longs to find out more about the world beyond the sea and, while visiting the surface, falls for the dashing Prince Eric. While mermaids are forbidden to interact with humans, Ariel must follow her heart. She makes a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, which gives her a chance to experience life on land but ultimately places her life – and her father’s crown – in jeopardy.

The film stars singer and actress Halle Bailey as Ariel; Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric; Tony Award winner Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian; Awkwafina as the voice of Scuttle; Jacob Tremblay as the voice of Flounder; Noma Dumezweni as Queen Selina; Art Malik as Sir Grimsby; with Oscar winner Javier Bardem as King Triton; and two-time Academy Award nominee Melissa McCarthy as Ursula.

The Little Mermaid is directed by Oscar nominee Rob Marshall, and produced by two-time Emmy winner Marc Platt, three-time Tony Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emmy winner John DeLuca, and Rob Marshall, with Jeffrey Silver serving as executive producer.

The songs feature music from multiple Academy Award winner Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman, who together won two Oscars for the music in the original animated The Little Mermaid, and new lyrics by Lin Manuel Miranda. The score is by Alan Menken, with music supervised and produced by Mike Higham.

Last week Fast X seized the number one spot at the box office and raked in an impressive $67.5 million. The tenth installment of the heart-stopping, action-packed series filled with high-speed car chases began in 2001 with The Fast And The Furious. This high-octane franchise has since amassed a jaw-dropping $6 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film franchise in Universal’s 111-year history.

This week the film dropped 66% and was knocked out of the top spot, down to #2, earning $23 million over the weekend and almost $108 million thus far. 

Fast X brings back Vin Diesel as Dom Toretto, with a spectacular supporting cast including Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Jason Momoa, John Cena, Jason Statham, Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron, Brie Larson, and Rita Moreno. In this chapter, Dom and his family face their most formidable opponent in the person of Dante Reyes, played by Momoa. Dante is fueled by revenge as he commits to destroying everything in his path and everyone who has meaning in Dom’s life. As typical for the series, audiences are showing more enthusiasm than critics, with Fast X scoring an 85% audience score while critics are mixed and have declared it  54% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 didn’t have quite a dramatic drop, earning an additional $20 million in its fourth weekend and taking the #3 spot, a drop of only 38% from last weekend. In its opening three days, GotG 3 grossed 81% of the box office total.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie was able to take the #4 spot on the box office top ten in its eighth week, earning $6.3 million and only dropping by 35% from last weekend. Since its release Mario has now earned a whopping $1.3 billion at the box office.

Sony’s The Machine was one this weekend’s other new wide releases The action-comedy brought in $4.9 million and finished in 5th place.

The official synopsis of The Machine reads:

Bert Kreischer rose to fame as a stand-up comedian known as The Machine, and in his signature set he recounts his true experience with Russian mobsters while on a booze-soaked college trip. Now, 23 years later, that trip has come back to haunt him as he and his estranged father (Mark Hamill) are kidnapped back to Russia by the mob to atone for something they say he did. Together, Bert and his father must retrace the steps of his younger self (Jimmy Tatro) in the midst of a war within a sociopathic crime family, all while attempting to find common ground in their often fraught relationship. The film is directed by Peter Atencio, written by Kevin Biegel and Scotty Landes, and based on The Comedy of Bert Kreischer. 

Lionsgate’s About My Father, another new release, also made the top ten list by taking the #6 spot, earning $4.25 million at the box office. Another comedy film, the official synopsis of About My Father reads:

The hottest comic in America, Sebastian Maniscalco joins forces with legendary Italian-American and two-time Oscar winner, Robert De Niro, in the new comedy About My Father. The film centers around Sebastian (Maniscalco) who is encouraged by his fiancée (Leslie Bibb) to bring his immigrant, hairdresser father, Salvo (De Niro), to a weekend get-together with her super-rich and exceedingly eccentric family (Kim Cattrall, Anders Holm, Brett Dier, David Rasche). The weekend develops into what can only be described as a culture clash, leaving Sebastian and Salvo to discover that the great thing about family is everything about family.

About My Father is directed by Laura Terruso and written by Austen Earl & Sebastian Maniscalco.

Yet another new release, Kandahar starring Gerard Butler earned $2.4 million at the box office and took the #7 spot. Tom Harris (Butler), an undercover CIA operative, is stuck deep in hostile territory in Afghanistan. When an intelligence leak exposes his identity and mission, he must fight his way out, alongside his Afghan translator, to an extraction point in Kandahar, all whilst avoiding the elite special forces unit tasked with hunting them down. The film has received lackluster reviews and is currently 43% rotten according to Rotten Tomatoes critics scores, but audiences don’t seem to hate it and have given it a 79% audience score. 

The last new release to hit the top ten list is A24’s You Hurt My Feelings starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies, Michaela Watkins, Arian Moayed, Owen Teague, Jeannie Berlin and is Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener. The film brought in $1.4 million and earned the #8 spot on the Box Office top ten list. 

Rounding out the top ten list is Evil Dead Rise at #9, earning just over $1 million and Book Club: The Next Chapter earning $920 thousand and taking the #10 spot. 


REELated:


The Top 10

1. The Little Mermaid (Disney) NEW – Cinemascore: A; Metacritic: 59; Est. budget: $250 million

$95,500,000 in 4,320 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $; Cumulative: $95,500,000

2. Fast X (Universal) Week 2; Last weekend #1

$23,020,000 (-66%) in 4,008 (+2) theaters; PTA: $5,631; Cumulative: $107,955,000

3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Disney) Week 4; Last weekend #2

$20,000,000 (-%) in 3,940 (-510) theaters; PTA: $; Cumulative: $299,400,000

4. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Universal) Week 8; Last weekend #3; also on PVOD

$6,270,000 (-35%) in 3,148 (-392) theaters; PTA: $1,992; Cumulative: $558,882,000

5. The Machine (Sony) NEW – Metacritic: 38; Est. budget: $20 million

$4,900,000 in 2,409 theaters; PTA: $2,034; Cumulative: $4,900,000

6. About My Father (Lionsgate) NEW – Cinemascore: B+; Metacritic: 37; Est. budget: $29 million

$4,250,000 in 2,464 theaters; PTA: $1,725; Cumulative: $4,250,000

7. Kandahar (Open Road/Briarcliff) NEW – Cinemascore: B+; Metacritic: 52

$2,410,000 in 2,105 theaters; PTA: $1,145; Cumulative: $2,410,000

8. You Hurt My Feelings (A24) NEW – Metacritic: 82

$1,389,000 in 912 theaters; PTA: $1,523; Cumulative: $1,389,000

9. Evil Dead Rise (Warner Bros. Discovery) Week 6; Last weekend #5; also on PVOD

$1,052,000 (-57%) in 921 (-1,252) theaters; PTA: $1,142; Cumulative: $66,200,000

10. Book Club: The Next Chapter (Focus) Week 2; Last weekend #4

$920,000 (-69%) in 1,312 (-2,174) theaters; PTA: $687; Cumulative: $16,132,000


Follow us on Facebook!