'Little Mermaid' impresses at Philippine box office, suffers 'racist backlash' in other Asian countries

MANILA, Philippines — Disney's live-action remake of "The Little Mermaid," starring Halle Bailey, has surprised at the Philippine box office to become the country's biggest movie in 2023 so far.

As of this writing, "The Little Memaid" has earned $5.8 million (P322 million), which is more than Marvel's most recent release, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," at $4.7 million (P261 million) and the animated "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" at $2.2 million (P122 million).

The latter remains the only movie to have surpassed a billion dollars at the global box office. It should be noted that "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" premiered late in the Philippines because of the inaugural Summer Metro Manila Film Festival that took place in mid-April.

A Reddit post even noted that "The Little Mermaid" has the highest opening week gross for 2023 with $2.17 million (P120) — more than the aforementioned "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" and Marvel's prior entry, "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," and the total gross of "The Super Mario Bros. Movie."

These are hopeful numbers as Philippine cinemas continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-pandemic Disney live-action remakes "Aladdin" and "The Lion King" earned $11 million (P611 million) and $10.2 million (P567 million), respectively.

Disney’s Senior Vice President for Studio Business in Asia-Pacific John Hsu told The Hollywood Reporter that the Philippines was a standout market for Disney.

Related: Review: 'The Little Mermaid' live-action drowns racial politics with superb cast

Hsu noted that the Philippines was the biggest territory for "The Little Mermaid" in Southeast Asia, the third-highest grossing market in Asia-Pacific behind Australia and Japan, and the 11th highest-grossing globally.

Similar groundbreaking success could not be found in other markets like China and South Korea, where the film underperformed amid an alleged racist backlash on social media for casting a Black actress as Ariel.

"The Little Mermaid" earned around $8.6 million (P478 million) from both countries. For comparison, "The Lion King" earned $120 million (P6.67 billion) in China while "Aladdin" earned $91 million (P5.06 billion) in South Korea.

According to Hsu, Filipinos embraced Bailey's performance, "They really loved Halle Bailey's performance as Ariel, and they really liked her as the new princess."

Among the reasons Hsu credits for the film's remarkable success in the Philippines are youthful demographics, strong nostalgia for the original 1989 animated film, and "an abiding love of music and singing that runs deep through Filipino culture."

Bailey's new rendition of the iconic song "Part of Your World" has more than 13 million plays on Spotify in the Philippines and even hit No. 1 on the music streaming platform.

Other blockbusters like "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," "Fast X" and "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" are still in theaters, with "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One," "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" coming out within the next month.

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