DISNEY’S HIGH HOPES FOR THE Little Mermaid in China were blown out of the water—pointing to much bigger problems for the company in future.
The live-action remake of the 1989 animated movie flopped in the country compared with other Western films, earning only around $3.7 million since opening on May 26. That’s a paltry sum compared to its takings in the U.S. and worldwide, where it made $117 million and $413 million respectively on its opening weekend.
It highlights an urgent, growing problem for the under-pressure media titan. How can Disney tap into such a lucrative market, appealing to increasingly different Chinese values, while staying true to its push for greater diversity?
Many experts have blamed the racist backlash in China to casting Black singer Halle Bailey as the mermaid Ariel for the failure of The Little Mermaid, but this isn’t the whole story. Others have pointed out that the popularity of Western films has been on the decline since the COVID pandemic, partly due to what some Chinese see as unfair criticism of their country over the origins of the virus.
