--- title: Disney Projects $118 Million Opening for ‘Little Mermaid’ description: Walt Disney Co. estimated that the new live-action remake of its animated 1989 hit The Little Mermaid would take in $117.5 million in ticket sales domestically over the four-day Memorial Day weekend. canonical: https://time.com/6283208/disney-halle-bailey-little-mermaid/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-05-28T17:15:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T15:57:00.528Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Disney Projects $118 Million Opening for ‘Little Mermaid’ og:description: The movie, which stars Halle Bailey as Ariel, generated $95.5 million through Sunday. og:url: https://time.com/6283208/disney-halle-bailey-little-mermaid/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda5d9a19c644f3e1/698a3e5347ca38dc293baead/halle.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: "The Little Mermaid" Australian Premiere - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Disney Projects $118 Million Opening for ‘Little Mermaid’ twitter:description: The movie, which stars Halle Bailey as Ariel, generated $95.5 million through Sunday. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda5d9a19c644f3e1/698a3e5347ca38dc293baead/halle.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Disney Projects $118 Million Opening for ‘Little Mermaid’ Remake by [By Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## By Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg May 28, 2023 5:15 PM UTC  Halle Bailey attends the Australian premiere of "The Little Mermaid" at State Theatre in Sydney, May 22, 2023. Halle Bailey attends the Australian premiere of "The Little Mermaid" at State Theatre in Sydney, May 22, 2023.Don Arnold—WireImage by [By Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## By Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg May 28, 2023 5:15 PM UTC Walt Disney Co. estimated that the new live-action remake of its animated 1989 hit _The Little Mermaid_ would take in $117.5 million in ticket sales domestically over the four-day Memorial Day weekend. The movie, which stars Halle Bailey as Ariel, a mermaid who longs to live among humans, generated $95.5 million through Sunday, the company said in a statement. Boxoffice Pro had estimated the film would take in more than [$105 million](https://www.boxofficepro.com/early-weekend-report-disneys-the-little-mermaid-shores-up-10-3m-from-domestic-previews-pacing-early-for-100m-3-day-125m-4-day/) over the three-day period and $135 million for the four days. _Little Mermaid_ wasn’t universally liked by [reviewers](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-22/-the-little-mermaid-2023-review-it-s-not-better-down-where-it-s-wetter) and currently holds a RottenTomatoes.com critics’ score of 67%. It scored much better with [regular audiences](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the%5Flittle%5Fmermaid%5F2023). _The Super Mario Bros. Movie_from Universal Pictures, which is the [highest grossing](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/2023/) film of the year so far, also received a low critics’ score. Disney, like other film studios, is still trying to find its footing in theaters as the world recovers from the global pandemic. Some of its family films have disappointed at the box office, including last year’s _Lightyear_ and _Strange World_. The company still had the third highest-grossing film in history with _Avatar: The Way of Water_, released last December. Disney’s budget for _Little Mermaid_ was around $250 million. Marketing and distributions expenses can stretch to about half of that amount. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6283208/disney-halle-bailey-little-mermaid/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6283208/disney-halle-bailey-little-mermaid/"},"headline":"Disney Projects $118 Million Opening for ‘Little Mermaid’ Remake","datePublished":"2023-05-28T17:15:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T15:57:00.528Z","description":"The movie, which stars Halle Bailey as Ariel, generated $95.5 million through Sunday.","url":"https://time.com/6283208/disney-halle-bailey-little-mermaid/","keywords":["movies","wire"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda5d9a19c644f3e1/698a3e5347ca38dc293baead/halle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"By Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda5d9a19c644f3e1/698a3e5347ca38dc293baead/halle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"The Little Mermaid\" Australian Premiere - Arrivals","caption":"\"The Little Mermaid\" Australian Premiere - Arrivals","creditText":"Don Arnold—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6283208/disney-halle-bailey-little-mermaid/","name":"Disney Projects $118 Million Opening for ‘Little Mermaid’ Remake"}}]}] ```