‘The Little Mermaid’ surfaces with $117.5M Memorial Day debut

Walt Disney Pictures

Disney’s The Little Mermaid swam to the top of the domestic box office in its opening weekend, grabbing an estimated $95.5 million for the three-day weekend and $117.5 million over the four-day. That’s slightly below expectations, but good enough to capture the fifth-best Memorial Day Weekend of all time, if estimates hold up. Last year at this time, Top Gun: Maverick kicked off the summer with the best Memorial Day Weekend ever, 160.5 million.

The news wasn’t quite so rosy overseas, where the film banked a disappointing $68.1 million. Worldwide, the live-action remake of the Disney animated classic — starring Halle BaileyDaveed DiggsAwkwafina and Melissa McCarthy — has grossed $185.6 million. Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

Fast X took second place, picking up an estimated $22.9 million between Friday and Sunday and $28.5 over the long weekend at the domestic box office. The film, in its second week of release, added an estimated $24.3 million at the international box office, pushing its two-week global tally past the $500 million mark.

Disney-Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 pulled up in third place in North America with an estimated $19.9 for the traditional weekend and $25.3 million through Monday.

Fourth place went to The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which scooped up an estimated $6.2 million in North America between Friday and Sunday and $8.3 million over the holiday weekend. Its worldwide total now stands at $1.2 billion.

Rounding out the top five was The Machine, based on Bert Kreicher‘s standup show of the same name. It grossed an estimated $4.9 million over the three-day weekend and $5.8 million over the four-day.

Elsewhere, About My Father, starring comedian Sebastian Maniscalco and Robert De Niro bowed in sixth place with an estimated $4.25 million and $5.3 million at the domestic box office.

You Hurt My Feelings, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies, debuted with an estimated $1.8 million from 912 theaters.

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