The Little Mermaid has been criticized by a prominent media diversity advocate for failing to acknowledge the horrors of slavery in the Caribbean.
26.05.2023 - 06:23 / deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE, late Thursday PM: Sources are telling us that Disney’s Rob Marshall directed The Little Mermaid is singing some high notes tonight of $10M+ in previews. Should that figure exceed $10.8M it will rep the 6th highest preview performance among PG and G rated titles in motion picture history. Tracking pegged the Halle Bailey movie at a $120M 4-day start over Memorial Day.
Remember, that preview cash is made up of Wednesday 6PM fan screenings at 500 premium screen theaters and early shows which began at 3PM today.
Even more impressive, Little Mermaid‘s preview figure bests that of Disney’s live action take of animated toon, Aladdin, from Memorial Day weekend 2019; that Will Smith pic doing $7M before grossing $31.3M on its first Friday for a $116.8M 4-day. Little Mermaid also easily beats the $2.3M previews (8PM start) of 2015’s Cinderella, which had a $23M first day, $67.8M start. However, Little Mermaid is swimming slower than Disney’s live action Beauty and the Beast from 2017 which did $16.3M, for a $63.7M Friday and $174.7M opening.
Female skewing movies, like Twilight for instance, often get a bad rep for being front-loaded. However, once a mass-appealing Disney princess movie fires up from its opening, it doesn’t let go. Beauty and the Beast only eased around -2% between its Thursday previews/Friday and Saturday business. Frozen 2 was +19% over a similar period while Aladdin, which starred Princess Jasmine, only eased -4% between its Thursday night/Friday and Saturday.
Though critics on Little Mermaid waned to 68% fresh, audiences on Rotten Tomatoes are very happy at 95%
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The Little Mermaid has been criticized by a prominent media diversity advocate for failing to acknowledge the horrors of slavery in the Caribbean.
Although mermaids might conjure up images of long, flowing, low-maintenance waves, it seems the actual cost of turning actress Halle Bailey into one was a little more on the expensive side. For the actress’ appearance as Ariel in Disney’s hit live action remake of The Little Mermaid, hairstylist Camille Friend revealed the true cost of getting those mermaid-worthy waves, and you could buy a house for the price.
J. Kim Murphy The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has made changes to its rating system for Disney’s live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” after the new release became the latest target for “review bombing” — a practice in which a production is flooded with negative reviews by users who wield multiple accounts or employ bots to create new ones. Since its release, “The Little Mermaid” has garnered 41,000 user ratings on IMDb. While the film has earned a positive 7.0 (weighted) average score, more than 39% of the ratings are 1 star, the lowest possible option. IMDb has placed a notice on the film’s ratings page, writing that the site’s “rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title. To preserve the reliability of our rating system, an alternate weighting calculation has been applied.” This message has been employed before by IMDb in the cast of other atypical user score patterns.
professional mermaid.Bailey first rose to fame and internet acclaim as half of Chloe X Halle, the singing group she formed in her parent’s living room with older sister Chloë. The self-taught duo’s staggering renditions of Beyoncé classics like “Best Thing I Never Had,” garnered the attention of Queen Bey herself who eventually signed the sisters to her Parkwood Entertainment record label.
Disney’s new Ariel found herself secretly swimming into the theatres.
had a multiverse long before they acquired Marvel: An unofficial House of Mouse detective sent shockwaves through Disney fandom after floating a rather dark fan theory that links the 1989 animated “Little Mermaid” with 1953’s “Peter Pan,” as seen in a TikTok clip with 6.6 million views.“I can’t believe I just noticed this In The Little Mermaid,” self-proclaimed “movie detective” Ivan Mars exclaimed in the caption to the vid. He frequently posts film-based conspiracy theories to his 2 million TikTok followers like some sort of cinematic “Da Vinci Code” — although users point out that many of his theories originated on Reddit.The latest target for Mars’ cinematic tinfoil hat was the animated “Little Mermaid,” a film that’s been revived in the public conscious with the release of the divisive, live-action adaptation starring Halle Bailey, 23, which took home $48.3 million on its opening night Friday.He specifically posited that Ariel’s mother Athena — who was killed by pirates, per the 2008 sequel “the Little Mermaid III” — was also in “Peter Pan.” Accompanying footage shows a scene from the 1953 classic, in which Pan cavorts with a red-headed dead ringer for Ariel in the Mermaid Lagoon, which coincidentally shares a name with the place where Athena was attacked in the aforementioned sequel.Due to the 36-year gap between “The Little Mermaid” and “Peter Pan,” fans have speculated that a young Athena would’ve probably looked a lot like her daughter at the time, according to Reddit.And given her demise at the hands of pirates, fans suspected that Pan baddie Captain Hook may been to blame.
Amid racist backlash toward Disney’s live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid”, Halle Bailey just received some love from singer and actress, Stephanie Mills, who originated Dorothy in The Wiz on Broadway.
this weekend! Halle Bailey, who plays Disney's live-action Princess Ariel, also went to see the movie incognito over the film's historic opening weekend.In a TikTok shared on Sunday, the 23-year-old star revealed how she remained undetected by fans, wearing sunglasses and a face mask. Bailey was able to snag a bucket of popcorn — decked out to celebrate the 's premiere of course — and get into a screening of the movie without anyone realizing who she was.
Disney fans are up in arms over comments by Paloma Faith.
Paloma Faith, a singer and actress in shows like Pennyworth and Dangerous Liaisons, watched The Little Mermaid over the weekend and is calling out the storyline.
Brent Lang Executive Editor Family audiences turned out in force, propelling Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” to the top of the box office over the Memorial Day weekend. The film, a live-action remake of the 1988 animated favorite, earned a splashy $117.5 million over the four-day holiday. It ranks as the fifth largest Memorial Day debut — last year’s “Top Gun: Maverick” set a new record for the holiday with its $160.5 million launch. At one point over the weekend, it looked as if “The Little Mermaid” might even open north of $120 million, but ticket sales flagged slightly. For Disney, the film’s popularity is a testament to its strategy of digging deep into its vaults and rebooting animated titles as live action movies, something it has done successfully with the likes of “Aladdin,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King.” Waiting out on the horizon: Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, the Oscar-winning director of “Summer of Soul,” is helming a remake of “The Aristocats” for Disney.
“The Little Mermaid” made moviegoers want to be under the sea on Memorial Day weekend.
A whole new generation of little girls are falling in love with “The Little Mermaid” and that’s thanks to Halle Bailey.
Brent Lang Executive Editor Thirty five years after the animated story of Ariel, a flame-haired siren of the sea who falls for a prince, charmed audiences, a live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” dominated the Memorial Day weekend box office. The Disney release is on track to debut to a massive $118 million over the four-day holiday, with $96 million of that coming over the weekend. It ranks as the fifth highest Memorial Day opening in history. The film got a lift from many of the same moviegoers who first fell in love with Ariel when she flitted across the screen in 1988, as well as from the generations of fans who weren’t alive when the original movie opened, but who were nevertheless weaned on the classic from its various appearances on DVD, television, and later streaming. The live action “Little Mermaid” (and “live action” is doing a lot of lifting here considering the sheer tonnage of CGI required to bring Ariel’s ocean home to life), was directed by Rob Marshall and stars Halle Bailey as the title character. Melissa McCarthy plays Ursula, the malevolent sea witch who steals Ariel’s voice in return for giving her legs and a chance to canoodle with the dreamy Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King). Javier Badem, Awkwafina and Daveed Diggs round out the ensemble.
Melissa McCarthy‘s makeup artist for The Little Mermaid is responding to critiques of her appearance in the movie.
Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor To bring Disney’s iconic mermaid princess Ariel to life in “The Little Mermaid,” costume designer Colleen Atwood constructed a life-sized tail that went from star Halle Bailey’s chest all the way down past her legs. “We made it to scale and 3D silk-screened the tail and painted onto that so you could get the nuance of the colors,” Atwood says. “We used different layers of sheer material, which gave the tail and scales an iridescent effect.” Her biggest challenge was blending the tail’s scales into Bailey’s skin. “I solved that by putting little fins made of fabric so there was a delineation between where the fish ended and the skin began,” she says.
The Little Mermaid” is making quite the splash at the domestic box office this weekend, with an opening day total of $38 million. The fantasy, which is opening in 4,320 theaters, is expected to gross between $120 million and $130 million over the four-day Memorial Day weekend. The musical remake, starring Halle Bailey as the mermaid princess Ariel, took in $10.3 million in previews on Thursday, ranking as the seventh-highest haul for a movie rated G or PG. That puts the film on track to gross well over $100 million over the holiday weekend. With a $250 million production budget, “The Little Mermaid” must bait box office success in order to make a reasonable return.
Halle Bailey is displaying some PDA! As hits theaters, the film's 23-year-old star took to TikTok to share a video of her jumping into her boyfriend, rapper DDG's, arms and giving him a kiss.Bailey set the video, which she posted in celebration of the end of her press tour, to a remixed clip of Beyoncé singing, «I am going to see my husband / I'm happy, I'm happy, to see my husband.»«On my last day of press like...» Bailey wrote alongside the clip, adding laughing and winking emojis.on my last day of press like…
gives audiences a mix of their favorite classics with modern tweaks, including three new songs and several updates to the soundtrack's iconic tunes.The music reflects the film's refreshed story, which director Rob Marshall, producer John DeLuca, and screenwriter David Magee have explained they tweaked to implement specific changes showcasing a more modern Disney princess, addressing criticism that the original film featured a young woman who was too wrapped up in a man, and giving Ariel more agency.The soundtrack features the vocal talents of the film's new cast, including GRAMMY-nominated singer Halle Bailey as the titular mermaid, Princess Ariel, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, and Javier Bardem as King Triton, with Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian the crab, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, and Awkwafina as Scuttle.Lin-Manuel Miranda, who teamed up with legendary composer-songwriter Alan Menken to write the film's new songs, previously told ET that «getting to write music for these characters that are probably the reason I started writing musicals in the first place, was actually easier than I thought.»«But the hardest part was my own intimidation working with Alan Menken, and that was entirely self-imposed,» acknowledged Miranda, who also serves as a producer on the film, alongside Marc Platt. «But when it came to how these characters speak and what they say, I've known that all my life.
is giving viewers the classic fairytale with several modern-day tweaks. The Rob Marshall-directed musical stars Halle Bailey as the titular, headstrong princess, a drastic departure from her previous depiction that initially garnered racist backlash.But Bailey's casting is only one of the changes made to the new live-action adaptation, which also stars Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, and Javier Bardem as King Triton, with Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian the crab, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, and Awkwafina as Scuttle.Here are 15 ways the remake differs from the original.