Box office: Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ falls short of Memorial Day records while everything else just does okay

Edward Douglas
·5 min read
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Memorial Day weekend continued the year’s trend of only the biggest of blockbusters doing decently, though it’s still too early to consider this the summer of disappointments just yet. Read on for the weekend box office report.

No less than five movies were released nationwide on Friday in anticipation of the extended four-day weekend, but Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” starring newcomer Halle Bailey in the title role, along with Melissa McCarthy and Javier Bardem, with voice roles by Akwafina, Daveed Diggs, and Jacob Tremblay, came out as the solid weekend winner. Directed by Oscar nominee Rob Marshall (“Chicago”), the movie came into the weekend with mixed reviews, but Disney released it into 4,320 theaters with previews starting on Thursday afternoon (with some fan events on Wednesday), which added up to $10.3 million ahead of the weekend.

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After making $38 million on Friday (including those previews), “The Little Mermaid” ended up with $95.4 million over the three-day weekend and an estimated $117.5 million including Monday. That’s slightly higher than Guy Ritchie’s live action “Aladdin” movie made over Memorial Day weekend in 2019, and it rated well with American audiences, earning an “A” CinemaScore. Overseas, the animated fantasy musical scored $68.3 million for a global opening through Sunday of $163.8 million.

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The tenth installment of Universal’s street racing franchise, “Fast X,” took a nasty tumble in its second weekend despite the four-day holiday, falling 66% to second place with $23 million over the three-day weekend and $28.7 million including Monday. It has grossed $113.6 million domestically in just 10 days, but it’s also faring far better overseas, where it added another $87.3 million this weekend, to bring its global total over the $500 million mark with $507.3 million.

The conclusion of James Gunn’s outer space superhero trilogy, “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3,” held up better in its own fourth weekend, crossing the $300 million mark with another $26.1 million over the four-day weekend ($20.4 million over three days), to bring its domestic take to $305.58 million, only the second movie of the year to cross the $300 million milestone. “Guardians” made another $25.1 million overseas to bring its global take to $731 million.

The first movie of the year to cross that  $300 million domestic mark was Universal’s animated “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which dropped to fourth place with $6.3 million, down 34% from last weekend, with $8.3 million over the four-day holiday. It has grossed $560.9 million domestically, which makes it the 14th-highest grossing movie ever for North America. “Mario Bros.” made another $13.1 million internationally this weekend, to bolster the $1.28 billion it has made globally since opening in April.

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No other movie made more than $6 million over the four-day weekend, but Sony’s “The Machine,” the semi-autobiographical comedy from stand-up comic Bert Kreischer (co-starring Mark Hamill as his father) ended up doing slightly better than the Sebastian Maniscalco comedy “About My Father,” co-starring Robert De Niro, to take fifth place. “The Machine” came out ahead of “Father” with an estimated $6 million four-day to the latter’s $5.4 million, and though both comedies were trashed by critics, “About My Father” did score a B+ CinemaScore among audiences.

Gerard Butler starred in the Middle East political thriller “Kandahar,” from Open Road Films, which didn’t do much better than the distributor’s recent Liam Neeson movies. It opened in seventh place with $2.4 million over the three-day weekend in 2,105 theaters, and $3 million including Monday. The movie’s B+ CinemaScore from audiences showed it was also received better by moviegoers than critics, who were quite mixed on Butler’s latest.

Nicole Holofcener’s new indie dramedy “You Hurt My Feelings,” starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, followed rave reviews from Sundance with a release by A24 into 912 theaters, where it scored $1.8 million over the four-day weekend to open in eighth place.

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“The Little Mermaid” winning the weekend was a no-brainer for Gold Derby’s box office prediction game, and most players got its opening weekend range correct as well. In fact, most players got the first four placements correct, but the fact that only four players had enough faith in “The Machine” to pick it for fifth place will be the biggest difference-maker this week.

Not only did 75 players go 6 for 6 in the May 19 game, but there was a five-way tie for first place between regulars “Max,” “MellowDrama,” “Jason,” “Robert Chardello,” and some other guy.

Next weekend delivers the animated sequel “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and the horror film “The Boogeyman,” so check back on Wednesday for the weekend preview, but also look out for Gold Derby’s June box office preview.

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