EXCLUSIVE: Disney’s live-action take of 2x Oscar nominated animated feature, The Little Mermaid, officially landed on tracking today for what looks to be a $110M 4-day opening. That will land the movie among the top eight openings for the holiday, last year Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick scoring a record start of $160.5M.
Of course, Little Mermaid, is female heavy, particularly with those under 25.
Disney’s top opening at the Memorial Day weekend B.O. belongs to 2007’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End with $153M. The studio’s live action of animated movie Aladdin debuted to a 4-day of $116.8M back in pre-pandemic 2019.
Disney will have a $100M+ opening title stateside this weekend in Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 which is eyeing around $110M, possibly north of $120M. I hear the pic’s advance tickets sales are pacing 6% behind Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania‘s which did a 3-day of $106.1M and 4-day of $120.3M. GOTG3 had a special Imax screening last night and will start previews tonight at 3PM. GOTG2 had a preview night of $17M before continuing to a $56M first Friday, and 3-day of $146.5M.
Chicago filmmaker Rob Marshall directed The Little Mermaid which stars Halle Bailey as Ariel, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Javier Bardem as King Triton, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian and Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric.
The top opening for a Disney live-action remake of an animated classic belongs to The Lion King which did $191.8M (though many would argue that the redo was animated).