The two countries with the highest movie consumption in Asia, South Korea and China, ultimately demonstrated with the statistics shown regarding the box office performance of “The Little Mermaid” live-action film, that they do not fully approve of this new movie.
The poor acceptance is based on the reception that the public gave to the main actress, Halle Bailey, who portrayed Ariel, as they cannot conceive the new portrayal of the famous Disney princess, since she was originally a white-skinned princess, not a black-skinned one as the new actress.
In South Korea, the movie managed to attract around 472,000 viewers to the theaters, which is not much in comparison to the 643,000 viewers that the new delivery of the “Fast & Furious” franchise managed to gather.
According to Box Office Mojo, the Disney film was able to gross $2.7 million in China during its first five days since its release, while another highly anticipated movie, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”, grossed an amusing $20 million, demonstrating that South Korea and China ultimately do not approve of this new production of “The Little Mermaid”.
The main reasons for the lack of acceptance of the film are the significant changes made. According to the film review website Douban, “The Little Mermaid” has a rating of 5 out of 10 points, and the main comments about this rating admit that “the famous Disney fairy tale that we grew up with is unrecognizable,” while others derogatorily point out the racial differences between the original animated version and the live action.
Additionally, according to Comscore, the film has grossed $327 million worldwide, out of which China has not contributed with a significant percentage, instead, it’s quite underwhelming in comparison to what the mouse house expected.
In response to these criticisms, the film director Rob Marshall defended the actress, stating, “She didn’t outshine anyone; we had no intention of hiring someone based on their skin color. We simply sought the best Ariel, and she got the role.”
