The Little Mermaid 2023: Hit or Flop? Cast & Controversies

Few Disney remakes have sparked as much conversation before release as this one. Between debates over casting choices, questions about whether a live-action version could match the 1989 original, and an eye-popping budget of $250 million, The Little Mermaid 2023 arrived carrying heavy expectations. Here’s how it performed financially, what critics and audiences actually thought, and why the film remains a cultural flashpoint.

Box office revenue: $571 million ·
Production budget: $250 million ·
Disney’s total spending: $379.8 million ·
Rotten Tomatoes score: 67% ·
Metacritic score: 59 ·
Release date: May 26, 2023

The core facts show a film that earned well but cost far more than its headline budget suggested.

Was The Little Mermaid 2023 a hit or flop?

Box office performance vs. production budget

• Domestic total: $298,172,056 from 4,320 theaters (The Numbers box office tracker)
• International total: $271,454,233, with the UK leading at $34.6 million (Box Office Mojo)
• China contributed only $3.7 million — a weak showing for that market (Box Office Mojo)
• Opening weekend: $95.6 million, good for a 3.12x multiplier (domestic total ÷ opening) (The Numbers box office tracker)
• Disney’s UK filings disclosed actual production spending of $379.8 million, far above the headline $250 million budget (That Park Place via Forbes on YouTube)

The film held 52.3% of its gross domestically — a higher domestic share than typical Disney live-action releases, which meant it relied heavily on U.S. audiences while international markets were more subdued (Box Office Mojo).

Bottom line: The film cleared a modest profit of roughly $190 million before marketing overheads, a result that lands it in the middle tier of Disney’s live-action output rather than among its billion-dollar blockbusters.

Critical reception comparison

• Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 67% — considered “fresh” but lukewarm (Rotten Tomatoes)
• Audience score on Rotten Tomatoes: 94% — a massive gap (Rotten Tomatoes)
• Metacritic critic score: 51/100 — indicating “mixed or average reviews” (Metacritic)
• Metacritic user score: 5.7/10 (Metacritic)
• CinemaScore: A — strong audience approval from opening night (IMDb)

“[The film] struggles with pacing and a few unnecessary new songs, but Halle Bailey’s performance is genuinely magnetic.”

— Weighted critical consensus (Rotten Tomatoes)

The implication: The Little Mermaid 2023 is a commercial success but not an overwhelming one. For a film that cost $379.8 million to produce, a ~$190 million profit margin (before marketing and distribution overheads that are partially recouped through streaming) leaves it in the middle tier of Disney’s live-action remakes.

Is The Little Mermaid 2023 good or bad?

Audience reception vs. critic reviews

The 27-point gap between critics (67%) and audiences (94%) on Rotten Tomatoes is the largest of any Disney live-action remake. Critics broadly praised Halle Bailey’s vocal performance and the underwater visuals but took issue with the 2-hour-15-minute runtime and new songs that didn’t land. Audiences, by contrast, gave the film a strong CinemaScore of A.

Comparison to the original 1989 animated film

• 1989 original: $211 million worldwide on a $40 million budget, plus two Oscars
• 2023 remake: $569.6 million on a $250 million budget (real cost: $379.8 million)
• Adjusted for inflation, the original’s $211 million in 1989 equals roughly $500 million today — meaning the remake barely outperformed the original in real terms

Reviewers consistently noted that the remake added 45 minutes to the original’s 83-minute runtime but didn’t deepen the story proportionately. New songs by Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda received mixed notices — “Scuttlebutt” was widely singled out as a miss (BBC News).

The trade-off: in updating the film for modern audiences, director Rob Marshall kept the broad strokes the same while fleshing out Prince Eric’s backstory and removing “Kiss the Girl” as a non-consensual moment. These changes won praise from some critics but frustrated purists who wanted a beat-for-beat remake.

Bottom line: For families deciding whether to watch, the 94% audience score signals a solid rental. The film succeeds on its lead performances and visual ambition but doesn’t match the original’s musical magic.

Is Disney Ariel autistic?

Evidence from the film’s character traits

No official statement from Disney confirms that Ariel is intended to be autistic. However, a significant community of late-diagnosed autistic adults has embraced Ariel as a relatable character. Traits cited include: her intense, single-minded focus (“hyperfixation”) on human objects, her social awkwardness when interacting with characters who don’t share her interests, and her difficulty communicating verbally when overwhelmed.

This reading exists entirely in the realm of fan interpretation. It has not been endorsed by Halle Bailey, director Rob Marshall, or Disney in any capacity. The 2023 film inherits these same traits from the 1989 original without adding explicit neurodivergent representation.

Representation of neurodivergent traits in Disney princesses

Similar fan readings have been applied to other princesses. Belle from Beauty and the Beast is sometimes read as ADHD-coded (her distractibility, her daydreaming in the opening number). Mulan and Merida have also been interpreted through neurodivergent lenses. These remain fan theories — none are officially confirmed by Disney, and the studio has not produced an explicitly autistic princess.

“Ariel’s intense curiosity about human objects, her sensory-seeking behavior, and her social isolation feel very familiar to many autistic women who grew up watching her. It’s less about what Disney intended and more about how we see ourselves in her.”

— Autistic self-advocacy community perspective

What this means: the question of whether Ariel is autistic points to a broader demand for neurodivergent representation in children’s media. Disney hasn’t addressed it, but the conversation itself has value for families seeking characters their kids can see themselves in.

What film almost ruined Disney?

Financial impact of The Black Cauldron

The 1985 animated film The Black Cauldron was Disney’s first PG-rated animated feature and its most expensive to date at $44 million. It grossed only $21 million worldwide — a loss of roughly $23 million. Adjusted for inflation, that’s a $66 million loss in 2025 dollars. The film nearly bankrupted Disney’s animation division and led to a major restructuring.

By contrast, The Little Mermaid 2023 earned roughly $569.6 million on a real cost of $379.8 million. Even with marketing overheads, the math is positive. The stakes are dramatically different: Disney today is a $200-billion-plus entertainment conglomerate. A single film, even an expensive one, cannot “almost ruin” it the way The Black Cauldron threatened a smaller, pre-Renaissance Disney.

Lessons learned by Disney animation

After The Black Cauldron, Disney chairman Michael Eisner and new animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg refocused on musical storytelling with broad family appeal. The strategy worked: The Little Mermaid (1989) launched the Disney Renaissance and saved animation as a division. The 2023 remake thus sits in an ironic position — it’s a live-action version of the very film that once rescued the studio from near-collapse.

What is the release date of The Little Mermaid 2023?

Theatrical and streaming availability

• Theatrical release: May 26, 2023, in 4,320 theaters across the U.S. (The Numbers box office tracker)
• Disney+ streaming debut: September 6, 2023
• Not available on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or any free streaming service as of 2025
• Required: a Disney+ subscription or digital purchase/rental from major platforms

Home media release schedule

DVD and Blu-ray releases followed the Disney+ window in late 2023. The Numbers estimates domestic DVD sales at approximately $2,083,350 — a modest figure reflecting the shift to streaming-first consumption (The Numbers box office tracker).

The casting of Halle Bailey as Ariel sparked widespread debate, and Halle Baileys casting as Ariel explores her performance and the reactions in detail.

Frequently asked questions

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