The Little Mermaid makes box office splash with US$95.5 million opening in North America
The film starring Halle Bailey as the titular mermaid Ariel and Melissa McCarthy as her sea witch nemesis Ursula displaces Fast X in the top spot.
This image released by Disney shows Halle Bailey as Ariel in "The Little Mermaid." (Disney via AP)
The Little Mermaid made moviegoers want to be under the sea on Memorial Day weekend.
Disney's live-action remake of its 1989 animated classic easily outswam the competition, bringing in US$95.5 million (S$129.2 million) on 4,320 screens in North America, according to studio estimates on Sunday (May 28).
And Disney estimates the film starring Halle Bailey as the titular mermaid Ariel and Melissa McCarthy as her sea witch nemesis Ursula will reach US$117.5 million by the time the holiday is over. It ranks as the fifth biggest Memorial Day weekend opening ever.
It displaces Fast X in the top spot. The 10th installment in the Fast And Furious franchise starring Vin Diesel has lagged behind more recent releases in the series, bringing in US$23 million domestically for a two-week total of US$108 million for Universal Pictures.
In its fourth weekend, Disney and Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3Â made an estimated US$20 million in North America to take third place. It's now made US$299 million domestically.
Fourth went to Universal's The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which keeps reaching new levels in its eighth weekend. Now available to rent on VOD, it still earned US$6.3 million in theatres. Its cumulative total of US$559 million makes Mario and Luigi the year's biggest earners so far.
Comics couldn't stand up to Ariel as the week's other new releases sank.
The Machine, an action comedy starring stand-up comedian Bert Kreischer, finished fifth with US$4.9 million domestically. And About My Father, the broad comedy starring stand-up Sebastian Maniscalco and Robert De Niro, was sixth with US$4.3 million.
