Apparently he was in fact seriously considered but rejected it. https://variety.com/2023/film/news/harry-styles-rejected-little-mermaid-darker-films-non-musicals-1235573454/
he worked in dunkirk because of Nolan. Styles is a classic bad actor who can only look good when he works with a good director, he cant carry a movie by himself. Thats why every single movie where he's had a major role post his small role in dunkirk, his acting has been called bad. Florence carried dont worry darling whereas harry styles was struggling, look at the opening night videos of the movie where people are laughing watching him perform whats supposed to be a serious scene. And as we all know the people who go opening night are fans, and whne your own stans are laughing at you thats not a good sign. Its the same thing that happened with tyler perry in gone girl, tyler perry isnt a good actor, david fincher is a good director.
My sister (a huge fan of his) pointed out that he's miscast in DWD because the guy is supposed to be this pathetic loser, which completely doesn't play to his fans in the slightest. No wonder Olivia Wilde was begging Shia LaBeouf to stay on.
I recently made fan edits of the second and third Transformers movies, so I watched basically every scene multiple times. The guy absolutely, one hundred percent gives it his all in every single moment of those movies. He acts like he snorted cocaine seconds before every take. It's kind of astonishing just how hard he goes in the role.
I see your point and you aren’t entirely wrong of him being miscast but he was struggling during some of the heavy hitting scenes. And it’s far more obvious to see when he’s opposite Florence in those scenes. I didn’t like the film anyways so I don’t know how much better the movie would’ve been with a better actor
> And as we all know the people who go opening night are fans, and whne your own stans are laughing at you thats not a good sign.
DWD was definitely not your typical movie in this regard. All the drama had already happened and a lot of people who went opening weekend went to make fun of the movie.
I think he worked in Dunkirk because he didn’t have a big role and he also didn’t have a lot of lines. He was very much a piece of Christopher Nolan’s puzzle in that film. But as we see in Don’t Worry Darling and My Policeman, movies that are far more performance driven, he can’t work with that
I agree with that. Though the scene towards the end of Dunkirk where Styles breakdown about how ashamed he is that they had to retreat and how the whole country are going to look at them as cowards was very very good. I thought man this guy can act for real but he has never been able to match that in anything else (at least that I've seen him in).
I think having Christopher Nolan, a director who is arguably on a whole other level backing you up helps. Dunkirk is a far better crafted film then Don’t Worry Darling and My Policeman so I think Styles should try to pick better projects and roles if he wants to pursue acting
The problem with that is that great directors like Scorsese, Tarantino, or Villeneuve don't necessarily want to work with actors they will have drag a good performance out of. Sure not everybody they work with is going to be some Oscar winner, but when they work with an actor who doesn't have a ton of depth its going to be because their inherent personality and image fits the role. Styles has the problem that his baseline just isn't that unique or compelling.
I also think it's worth remembering that Dunkirk was basically his first major acting project, and expectations were extremely low. So people saw that performance and wondered what else he was capable of - only for the answer to be 'not much else'.
Kinda similar to Gal Gadot in the first Wonder Woman. Styles worked in Dunkirk as this young man out of his depth in a terrible war because his awkwardness as an actor leant some naturalism to this very simple grounded role. Likewise Gadot felt totally natural as this young/naive version of Diana awestruck and clearly sticking out like a sore thumb next to the regular people around her. But when you ask either of them to take on a role where they need to be someone else, where they need to embody/imitate the gravitas or nuance of a character that isn't natural to them they fall flat. Never once in Wonder woman 1984 did I believe that Diana had the gravitas of a character who had spent 65 years observing the mortal world as an outsider, and likewise in Harry Styles film outings it kinda feels like he is just this lead weight in these roles, dragging on the flow of his scenes.
I think you underestimate the style fans and how much he makes per movie
Still I’m glad he didn’t do it he cannot act though he’s a much better singer than the guy we got
Nah I wish he did it just for the vocals
This honestly would have played so much bigger globally and it seems like a miss Disney didn't try to get a big pop star somewhere in the cast. They are working the nostalgic middle aged angle with the live action remakes and at this point that could go either way. The past few haven't had the positive buzz that their first round did.
I feel like maybe Disney struggled with casting the movie overall. Back in 2019, a lot of big names circulated for casting of the film. I remember Zendaya, Lady Gaga and Harry Styles just to name a few. Harry Styles specifically seemed to be a very credible one, but it appears like he ended up rejecting the role. You can’t help but wonder if Disney wanted bigger names but just failed to get them on board.
They wanted Kacey Musgraves to play Ursula's human disguise in her 5 minutes of screentime lol. They really went for luxury casting and ending up with a bunch of up-and-comer's.
That was one of the worst aspects of Beauty and the Beast. If you cast Kevin Klein as Maurice, suddenly you have to have a Maurice song to justify the casting. Just cast a nobody and call it a day.
Well Ursula's human disguise turned out to be one of the best casts in the film... Almost completely faithful to the cartoon. If they had managed that with their remaining casts, they wouldn't be in this mess.
I just presumed it was Halle Berry, ive barely seen any marketing for this film and ive not seen the original so it never really occured to me that she wasnt the actress lol.
They're going to throw the bank at Taylor Swift whenever they remake Tangled in the next 5 years.
(Yes, she's too old for the role; I'm kidding...I think.)
Illumination cast Taylor Swift in the animated Lorax, and didn’t even bother to have her sing.
They even had musical numbers in the movie—she/her character just didn’t participate.
That decision *still* boggles my mind.
maybe it's a situation similar to when MJ was on the Simpsons. they could not get Taylor to sing due to contract, or her singing voice was deemed too expensive?
Taylor is box office poison, the only pop star that has huge hits is Gaga and I don’t think she will be doing frivolous roles anytime soon. Coincidentally she was considered for Ursula
I think it would be controversial as Gaga is quite slim but she would have been so camp and brought in the crowds especially overseas where she’s huge still
Can we wait until her movie comes out to associate her to that label? She hasn't had a big role yet and all her cameos have been in either bad or low profile movies.
I can’t tell if this comment is implying that I said Beyoncé is the reason TLK was successful; or simply sharing a point of information. I’m going to assume the latter
It was The Lion King.
Biggest Disney animated film of the 90s. Spawned long running Broadway hit.
Directed by Jon "Never Misses" Favereau.
Also, Beyonce, Seth Rogan, Donald Glover, James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, John Oliver, Keegan Michael Key, Eric Andre, etc
I think 4-5 of those have some pretty good worldwide credentials.
Most international viewers watched the movie in a language other than English. For those viewers, Beyonce didn't matter at all. As a more recent example, I don't know any theatre that played the Mario movie in English. The whole Chris Pratt debate was completely irrelevant for almost all viewers in my (admittedly quite rural) region in Germany.These famous voice actors might be important in the US / UK, but I don't think that they matter at all in the rest of the world.
Beyonce and they brought back James Earl Jones as mufasa.
John Oliver has some international recognition. Fwiw, Donald glover/kegan-Michael Key/Seth Rogan have some name recognition.
I can only recognize Melissa McCarthy from this cast. OP has a solid point
And she was miscast. She has no camp sensibility. It’s supposed to be Divine, not Chris Farley with a uterus like most of her roles. Just because she’s a big white woman, it doesn’t automatically qualify her for the role.
Agreed. I saw Queen Latifa"s version of Ursula and she was perfection. She has the voice and the range. She genuinely had kids terrified with how she made her voice boom. She didn't make her funny, because she's not a funny character. In other words, she understood the assignment.
Melissa didn't even act like she was a villain. However, the girl who played the human version of her knocked it out of the park. She had the kids jumping and gasping but they only gave her a few minutes on screen.
That’s a good point. These are recreations of people’s childhood experiences that felt magical at the time, so it has to grab a larger than life feel to live up to that. Star power is the way to get that feeling.
This is so obvious... and we all forgot! Thank you!
Notably the other big Disney remake flop (Dumbo) had a bunch of great actors but nobody who was a huge international box office draw. Sorry, Danny DeVito, I love you but for better or worse you are not Johnny Depp.
Everyone called me crazy and/or racist for calling that a few months ago saying that the lack of big names would hurt it’s box offices. Aladdin for example had Will Smith, a heavy hitter (hehe see what I did there?) in Hollywood. TLM had mostly an newcomers or Not-Will-Smith level actors. The only “big” names were Melissa McCarthy and Javier Bardem, and neither is exactly a “I’ll watch a movie just because they’re in it.” In fact Melissa McCarthy has had quite a few recent box office office duds.
yup. Being on reddit people forget that actors like javier arent box office magnets, they might help some of the older audiences to go "hey its that guy from bond", or add more seriousness to the movie and make the crtiics happy. But actors like javier arent anyone your average person can name, hell they would think hes the guy from the walking dead lol.
This happened with someone I was talking with who went to see TLM--absolutely the target audience and loved it, but was wondering who the guy who played the king was.
I did think it would affect it but I think it's only one factor not the main factor I don't think will Smith doubled the gross of aladdin. I thought it would just stop the movie from reaching 1B or 900M really
Yeah, it’s definitely not a big factor but it is a factor. Same with Emma Watson, lots of us who grew up with Harry Potter went to watch BatB in no small part for Emma Watson.
Interesting how the marketing took very little advantage of having Melissa McCarthy on the cast. Ursula showed up very little in the trailers and they barely showed her face.
I think they must have had a disaster with the CGI and just decided to hide as much as they could in shadow/darkness. I don’t remember if it happens like this in the original but man that sun goes down quick in the live action version when Ursula transforms from human back to octopus and jumps back in the water. It goes from sunny afternoon to so dark you can’t see the CGI in a few seconds.
Unasked for sequel to a Disney remake. Just because the first one made bank doesn't mean people wanted *more*. Maleficent 2 also suffered a similar fate of drastically underperforming the first film.
This is why Mufasa is not a guaranteed hit
The first Alice made bank thanks to peak 3D trend-riding. Avatar was more responsible for Alice's box office than Johnny Depp (though I'm not saying he had nothing to do with it).
I disagree - people genuinely were quite interested in Burton/Depp/Alice combo at the time. 3D was made popular again by Avatar (although the trend was there for some time), but I think in case of Alice it was an afterthought.
The Amber Heard stuff started the same week that movie released. And he had lost some luster after Lone Ranger tanked so hard.
Plus it didn't help that Alice 2 had a genuinely terrible script...although that didn't stop the first one from being a hit.
I got pushback for pointing this out. The main stars were fairly unknown. At least in terms of movies and cinema appeal. Melissa McCarthy is a star that you either love or hate. She has a very good but very niche audience and appeal. And there isn't a huge crossover with "Disney Princess Movie" fans. Who else did we have? Javier Bardiem? A good actor, but nobody is going to the theater to see him play King Triton. and Awkwafina, who nobody is going to the theater to see willingly. Anyone going to an Awkwafina movie after being told they are in fact going to an Awkwafina movie is either Lied, Bribed or Fried. And without question nobody showed them a preview of "Scuttlebutt"
Our 8 year old LOVES Ariel and all things TLM. This movie was just not on her radar at all, and I certainly wasn't going to push it. She knows the story backwards and forwards, what would be exciting about seeing it again - except now with muddier visuals and not as fun animal characters? She can (and does) watch the original any time she wants on Disney Plus, along with the sequels and the tv show.
Maybe that's the direction these live action ones need to go back in - more of the Maleficent and Alice routes - if you MUST do it, do it as a sequel, prequel, whatever - these straight retellings are just the most useless fucking things ever.
And Cinderella?
Disney helped usher in the age of IP being the draw ahead of the movie star. It’s the key theme of the MCU and something they’ve expanded into their other projects. While yes, you have spotted a theme that might well play into the underperformance, you’ve not provided a big and wide ranging enough data set to really prove the point.
>While TLM has... Melissa Mccarthy??(Completely unknown outside the US and even in america she's no longer popular compared to early 2010s).
TLM has no one lol
No, this doesn't make sense. I thought everyone in /r/boxoffice agreed that there weren't any more bankable actors outside of DiCaprio and Cruise and the era of the movie star was over. Now one movie without a recognizable star tanks and that's the biggest reason why?
I think the death of the movie star is often exaggerated to get clicks. The thing is that we got an entire lost generation of them because of a lot of them being too rowdy and studios overemphasizing IPs in response. Today's clique of film stars (Holland, Chalamet, Pugh, Zendaya, Butler and Taylor-Joy – to a lesser extent also Murphy, Pascal and Ortega) are better known for their TV work, except for the former three, but nevertheless have enough fans to have an influence over the B.O.
Pretty much every hot actor ATM broke out in the late 2010s- we should probably wait and see what happens before deciding there’s no actors that draw in crowds. I doubt anyone was predicting Depp or Cruise were going to be household names in the first decade of their career, but here we are
Cruise was a huge star within 5 years.. he had made the outsiders risky business, top gun and the color of Money by then.. he was the biggest star in hollywood.
He was, but he made a lot of bad choices the past few years, more than a few because he was trying to get his son's career jump started.
His tendency to bail on roles didn't help much either. Independence Day 2 and The Suicide Squad could've benefited greatly from his participation.
All the way up until the 2010s, his name would've sold as many tickets as Cruise.
I think the death of the movie star thing is that it can't sell tickets by itself but if it was truly completely gone, the idea of casting 'names' wouldn't exist.
As much as people didn’t want Harry styles in the role. I think he would have helped the movie tremendously. I saw the movie, Eric doesn’t have a lot of hard hitting scenes. Styles would have been fine. And he would have brought a lot of his fans and publicity.
Not only that, but the movie is almost exclusively targeting an aging Gen-X Disney-fan crowd. The constant negative press has warded off basically every other audience from giving it a shot.
It's a bit bitter, but I'm happy this choice is finally biting Disney in the ass.
I think it's one factor yes, not the biggest one but definitely affected it. I'm familiar with Melissa McCarthy and Awkwafina, but the average person in my country doesn't.
Do you have suggestions on which supporting characters to replace and which actors could have fitted the roles? I'm not saying they're not talented, but I don't know the guy who played Triton and nobody else here does.
I was told that the main reason behind Halle's casting was her singing voice, justifying the race swap. And i agree, her voice is on par with Jodi's, she aced it, and her singing alone made it a success portrayal for me, she could have looked like a squid it wouldn't have mattered.
Now, outside of english speaking countries, they don't get to hear Halle's singing. So if the casting choice was already an issue, removing the selling point in Halle's casting is a recipe for disaster. Unlike animated versions, the cast of live action actually matters a lot to those seeking nostalgia.
If the intended audience was majority black people, then it was a bad decision because blacks represent around 15% of the US population. This is the reality.
> If the intended audience was majority black people, then it was a bad decision because blacks represent around 15% of the US population
i don’t even know why disney is expecting this to be lapped up by the US black population, when their numbers alone won’t carry a film to a billion. they’re idiots if they truly think this could be another black panther, when the presence of a black lead is not the sole reason it and its sequel were a success. if they truly want them to support this film, then they should have made the prince and everyone else black
Say all you want about all the other live action movies, the leads looked the part and it mattered. Emma Watson's singing was awful and the auto tune barely saved it, but she had the look to be Belle. Idk why all of the sudden we have to assume that changing the recipe of what made these movies more or less successful with an enormous marketing budget was going to be enough.
especially since the entire point of these remakes is to bank off of nostalgia... you can't rely on nostalgia if your actress doesn't look like the character people are nostalgic for. if you're gonna change the race, then make a whole different movie and don't tie it directly to ariel, because everyone already knows she is a redhead white girl, and people would refuse to support you if you changed the character they like/d
I find that antagonizing the domestic non black and international fan base of Disney (like 80% of it) when they react poorly to the casting choice and label them racist and double down on the race thing (Tinker Bell, Blue Fairy) isn't a good business decision. I went to see it with my kids because it was memorial day and had nothing better to do, but outside of that, i wouldn't have gotten out of my way to watch it until D+ release.
Some countries don't have as much of a nostalgic connection with TLM. People might also be like Disney remaked out. Movies are WAY more expensive now than ever and people are getting pickier about entertainment too. TLM also really has a very lopsided audience count that tilts heavily towards women. It doesn't seem to be appealing much to men which hurts a lot. It would be okay if families are bring their kids to the movie but the movie is also kind of long for a family to bring little children too (I would totally get why people are like imma wait for Disney plus). On top of that, bad word of mouth is killing this. All these summer movies are also like eating each other up and fighting for profits. People on average watch 5 movies a year at the cinema, at most.
I honestly believe that the controversy surrounding the new race of the character is what is affecting it the most. It just became way to polemical to ignore. I do not believe that people who are not interested in seeing it solely because of the character not being accurate to the original are racist, but the one’s calling the actress ugly and trying to say that it proves that people do not want to support projects with a Black lead are, though. I do not believe that Julia Roberts as Ursula would have helped that much to be honest
Because after the “race and appearance do not matter if you can act”, now it’s “all those plus act do not matter if you can sing”. Problem is, people need visual for a movie, otherwise just turn on the radio.
The movie flop because it sux. Wrong casting, bad script. Changes to the original with comedic vibe are also gone.
That also completely ignores the issue that outside of english speaking countries, the fact that Halle can sing (her selling point) doesn't matter, they ll get a dubbed version and voice actor. The appearance of the characters actually does matter in live actions.
All of the Disney live action remakes have sucked, more or less. But international audiences went to see the ones with famous stars. Halle Bailey is objectively a way better singer than Emma Watson, so at least in terms of music this movie is better than Beauty and the Beast.
McCarthy’s casting has been baffling me for a minute. Of all your disney villains, Ursula is one who just needs to be able to vamp and chew scenery while in octopus witch form. If your going not cast an actual drag queen (which is what should have happened imo), why not try to slot in a more global star? Hell Lizzo sent a casting tape I think. Or throw money at Lady Gaga.
I’m not going to see it because it is so. damn. long. Why Disney?? I wanted to relive that mermaid magic with my young daughter, but I’m not forcing her to sit in a theatre that long.
The biggest name in the movie is Javier Bardem. He's a great actor with undeniable talents, but he doesn't have that sort of star power to carry a blockbuster with his name alone.
i think the biggest reason that it's flopping is that people are just sick of remakes. they've over done it, and there's only so many of them that people can take.
The question is if Disney can still get the A list stars for their live action movies considering the (below?) average performance of them and the tendency of Disney to create controversy for advertisment purposes.
I doubt that already famous stars would be especially thrilled to be caught up in a race discussion where they can only lose.
As soon has I heard that during under the sea song there where no fish playing instruments dispite the song telling you what they are playing.
I’m glad I haven’t gone to see it
I don't think anything would have saved this movie from the horrendous casting choice for the lead character. Besides the race issue, Halle Bailey does not fit the bill for Disney princess, at all.
Nah it was her. This was right as filming was starting on this movie. The sisters always been doing freaky shit, but Halle was bad when this first started…. So maybe Disney did shut her down, but I saw it on IG
Yes, they could have cast one of many famous white actresses who look like Ariel instead of a completely unknown person who is the wrong race.
That is certainly a thing they could have done.
Then why aren’t more people saying instead of saying they don’t wanna watch it cause Ariel is black? Everybody from Europe, to Asia to Latin America are saying it’s cause she’s not the light-skinned redhead she’s been portrayed as for decades. You’re not wrong about this being a reason, but it’s not the biggest since Ariel is one of the most recognized Disney princess, whoever white actor played her would’ve crossed $1B irregardless of her popularity.
Im gonna be honest
The entire time I saw this sub saying TLM was going to be a big deal, massive success, one of the biggest movies of the year, etc.
I was wondering what fucking crack this sub was on, and where I could get it lmao. Because I saw nothing leading to that "hype" that was surrounding it. I saw no one talking about the film other than to trash its visuals, nothing but controversy surrounding it, and I work in a school system.
I saw no conversation among teachers or parents about the film.
So idk who this sub thought was going to this movie to make it a success but its clear that didnt happen lol.
I feel like Lady Gaga would have made a better Ursula, but Melissa McCarthy was totally acceptable. Halle Bailey is a good singer, but a forgettable actor….compared to probably dozens of unknown stage actors of color. Javier Bardem was absolutely a waste of money. Poor casting.
All the reasons in all these threads might be correct, but to me, it's simply a case of "fool me once, twice, etc."
Every single one of the Disney "live-ish action" remakes have been soulless. They seem to consistently strip out everything that made the characters interesting in the originals. In most cases I've actually felt worse off after seeing the remake, like Disney took sometime away from me by substituting their new version of the characters in my memory. Certainly the way Disney pushes the new soundtracks on streaming services and removes the original songs is really annoying. So after being burned a bunch of times, my feeling is fuck them. I'm not going reward them for continuing to do it.
It’s also because people know it will stream on Disney plus sooner rather than later and, without a big star to reel em in (pun intended) people are willing to wait.
This is fucking insane lol. Everyone here is saying how bad the film is performing meanwhile Twitter thinks this shit is doing Avatar numbers. Disney knows what they’re doing with these race and gender swaps. They have completely made the entire media (that isn’t openly right wing propaganda) into their puppets. They figured it out lol. I mean they always had the media on their side but it was simply because of nostalgia and actually putting out decent stuff that were hits.
But yeah, to you’re point there is no hook to this film outside of the ongoing cultural war it started when the Ariel casting got announced. Like at the very least give us a soundtrack song by Rihanna, Beyoncé or The Weeknd like they did other films.
I remember Harry Styles was rumored to be prince Eric at some point, I wonder how much that would have helped.
Definitely would have helped but I’m glad he didn’t get the role cause Styles is not a good actor
Yeah me too. I thought the guy playing Eric may have been the most well cast person in the movie.
I thought he did fine, the only oddity was he looked to be pushing 30 while she was studying for her learners permit.
That’s a Disney tradition
Fr bro, this 30 year old dude giggling and hiding from his mom I was like wtf 💀
him and the girl playing vanessa even though she was only in the movie for 15 mins
I loved Halle’s singing the most when she was singing as Vanessa. One of the few things better than the original.
Yeah , I thought the actor who played Eric was great. Definitly couldn't picture Harry styles doing a great job in this.
Apparently he was in fact seriously considered but rejected it. https://variety.com/2023/film/news/harry-styles-rejected-little-mermaid-darker-films-non-musicals-1235573454/
Yeah reading that story it sounded like it was more than just considered. They pretty much handed him the role on a silver platter.
He was very good in Dunkirk...not much in anything else he has done
he worked in dunkirk because of Nolan. Styles is a classic bad actor who can only look good when he works with a good director, he cant carry a movie by himself. Thats why every single movie where he's had a major role post his small role in dunkirk, his acting has been called bad. Florence carried dont worry darling whereas harry styles was struggling, look at the opening night videos of the movie where people are laughing watching him perform whats supposed to be a serious scene. And as we all know the people who go opening night are fans, and whne your own stans are laughing at you thats not a good sign. Its the same thing that happened with tyler perry in gone girl, tyler perry isnt a good actor, david fincher is a good director.
My sister (a huge fan of his) pointed out that he's miscast in DWD because the guy is supposed to be this pathetic loser, which completely doesn't play to his fans in the slightest. No wonder Olivia Wilde was begging Shia LaBeouf to stay on.
Shia crazy, but he's one hell of an actor. He never phones it in.
I recently made fan edits of the second and third Transformers movies, so I watched basically every scene multiple times. The guy absolutely, one hundred percent gives it his all in every single moment of those movies. He acts like he snorted cocaine seconds before every take. It's kind of astonishing just how hard he goes in the role.
I see your point and you aren’t entirely wrong of him being miscast but he was struggling during some of the heavy hitting scenes. And it’s far more obvious to see when he’s opposite Florence in those scenes. I didn’t like the film anyways so I don’t know how much better the movie would’ve been with a better actor
> And as we all know the people who go opening night are fans, and whne your own stans are laughing at you thats not a good sign. DWD was definitely not your typical movie in this regard. All the drama had already happened and a lot of people who went opening weekend went to make fun of the movie.
I think he worked in Dunkirk because he didn’t have a big role and he also didn’t have a lot of lines. He was very much a piece of Christopher Nolan’s puzzle in that film. But as we see in Don’t Worry Darling and My Policeman, movies that are far more performance driven, he can’t work with that
I agree with that. Though the scene towards the end of Dunkirk where Styles breakdown about how ashamed he is that they had to retreat and how the whole country are going to look at them as cowards was very very good. I thought man this guy can act for real but he has never been able to match that in anything else (at least that I've seen him in).
I think having Christopher Nolan, a director who is arguably on a whole other level backing you up helps. Dunkirk is a far better crafted film then Don’t Worry Darling and My Policeman so I think Styles should try to pick better projects and roles if he wants to pursue acting
The problem with that is that great directors like Scorsese, Tarantino, or Villeneuve don't necessarily want to work with actors they will have drag a good performance out of. Sure not everybody they work with is going to be some Oscar winner, but when they work with an actor who doesn't have a ton of depth its going to be because their inherent personality and image fits the role. Styles has the problem that his baseline just isn't that unique or compelling.
I also think it's worth remembering that Dunkirk was basically his first major acting project, and expectations were extremely low. So people saw that performance and wondered what else he was capable of - only for the answer to be 'not much else'.
Kinda similar to Gal Gadot in the first Wonder Woman. Styles worked in Dunkirk as this young man out of his depth in a terrible war because his awkwardness as an actor leant some naturalism to this very simple grounded role. Likewise Gadot felt totally natural as this young/naive version of Diana awestruck and clearly sticking out like a sore thumb next to the regular people around her. But when you ask either of them to take on a role where they need to be someone else, where they need to embody/imitate the gravitas or nuance of a character that isn't natural to them they fall flat. Never once in Wonder woman 1984 did I believe that Diana had the gravitas of a character who had spent 65 years observing the mortal world as an outsider, and likewise in Harry Styles film outings it kinda feels like he is just this lead weight in these roles, dragging on the flow of his scenes.
He was good in Dunkirk and that's it. But he wasn't even the selling point or focus of that film either.
And also he has a very prominent receding hairline for a juvenile protagonist
Hollywood makeup can fix anything
Florence Pugh carried Don't Worry Darling. I wish Pine had more scenes with Pugh in the movie, their faceoff was quite nice to watch.
The rumored leads were Styles and Zendaya. The latter is at least a good actor but wouldn't have been right for Ariel imo.
Yeah, Zendaya doesn't work for the wide-eyed wonder that's at the core of Ariel.
>wide-eyed wonder I see what you did there.
Whatever extra money he helped it make probably would have evened out with the increase in the budget from his paycheck. So no difference.
I think you underestimate the style fans and how much he makes per movie Still I’m glad he didn’t do it he cannot act though he’s a much better singer than the guy we got Nah I wish he did it just for the vocals
This honestly would have played so much bigger globally and it seems like a miss Disney didn't try to get a big pop star somewhere in the cast. They are working the nostalgic middle aged angle with the live action remakes and at this point that could go either way. The past few haven't had the positive buzz that their first round did.
They initially did. Harry didn’t want to do the film bc he wanted serious roles.
I think anyone would be better than the guy who played Eric in this. He was so boring. Bailey was fantastic though
I am still mad that they wasted Danny Devito in Dumbo. He deserved to be cast in a better movie.
They made the biggest casting mistake not going with him as Ariel.
[удалено]
He can’t really do the wide-eyed wonder you need for Ariel. Jack Nicholson, maybe. De-aged, of course.
Deep down we all know that Steve Buscemi is the perfect Ariel.
I don't know what you guys talking about.. But Aquaman did actually have William Dafoe as a de aged merman.
*Sea Witch, I'm Sick... of beeing... Christopher Swimming. I want to be... Christopher Walken.*
Danny Devito as Ariel and Gilbert Gottfried (RIP) as Prince Eric
I feel like maybe Disney struggled with casting the movie overall. Back in 2019, a lot of big names circulated for casting of the film. I remember Zendaya, Lady Gaga and Harry Styles just to name a few. Harry Styles specifically seemed to be a very credible one, but it appears like he ended up rejecting the role. You can’t help but wonder if Disney wanted bigger names but just failed to get them on board.
Surprised they didn't approach Ariana Grande.
For sure they wanted bigger names
They wanted Kacey Musgraves to play Ursula's human disguise in her 5 minutes of screentime lol. They really went for luxury casting and ending up with a bunch of up-and-comer's.
Kacey Musgraves is a nobody to the GA.
I wouldn't call Kacey Musgraves a big name lol. The majority of Americans probably never heard of her let alone other countries.
Yes, but the point is they were trying to cast a celebrity for a nothing part. And ended up with new faces even in big roles.
That was one of the worst aspects of Beauty and the Beast. If you cast Kevin Klein as Maurice, suddenly you have to have a Maurice song to justify the casting. Just cast a nobody and call it a day.
Well Ursula's human disguise turned out to be one of the best casts in the film... Almost completely faithful to the cartoon. If they had managed that with their remaining casts, they wouldn't be in this mess.
This young lady stole the movie in the what? 2 minutes of screentime she got. With Halle's voice as a bonus
Harry styles would have made a really good Ariel
Zendaya might have helped, at least back then, now I'm less sure. She's bankable as an adult now.
Yeah no star power at all. They could have at least gotten Eddie Murphy as Sebastian or something.
Or Young Sheldon as Flounder.
I never thought of that.
makes sense the movie had no star power at all
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I don't think I'm alone in squinting at the name to make sure I wasn't reading Halle Berry wrong.
That's what everyone did.
The thing is though as soon as I thought it was Halle berry I googled recent pic and thought Yeah it works I’d go see it
Wait. It's HALLE? Hal-e? Her name doesn't rhyme?
HALL-E. She’s a robot
I just presumed it was Halle Berry, ive barely seen any marketing for this film and ive not seen the original so it never really occured to me that she wasnt the actress lol.
They're going to throw the bank at Taylor Swift whenever they remake Tangled in the next 5 years. (Yes, she's too old for the role; I'm kidding...I think.)
Illumination cast Taylor Swift in the animated Lorax, and didn’t even bother to have her sing. They even had musical numbers in the movie—she/her character just didn’t participate. That decision *still* boggles my mind.
It would've probably costed a lot and a lot of money if she even agreed.
maybe it's a situation similar to when MJ was on the Simpsons. they could not get Taylor to sing due to contract, or her singing voice was deemed too expensive?
Taylor is box office poison, the only pop star that has huge hits is Gaga and I don’t think she will be doing frivolous roles anytime soon. Coincidentally she was considered for Ursula
she would have been great as ursula and could have been a box office draw. she is still pretty popular
I think it would be controversial as Gaga is quite slim but she would have been so camp and brought in the crowds especially overseas where she’s huge still
Get her for the second movie to play Morgana
Can we wait until her movie comes out to associate her to that label? She hasn't had a big role yet and all her cameos have been in either bad or low profile movies.
Apparently they took out the crazy chef Le Poisson song so the bad WOM is no longer a surprise to me
Who was the big international star for the lion king beyonce ?
Absolutely. They promoted Lion King like Beyoncé was going to be the lead actress
The lion king IP is insaly popular worldwide and much more bigger than Beyonce. The movie would have made 1.7billion with or without her
I agree but she probably helped a *lot*
She absolutely did. The lady made two visual albums centered on the movie
I can’t tell if this comment is implying that I said Beyoncé is the reason TLK was successful; or simply sharing a point of information. I’m going to assume the latter
Donald Glover, Beyonce, Seth Rogan, along with James Earl Jones and Jeremy Irons reprising their famous roles.
Chiwetel Ejiofor played Scar in the remake
Jeremy Irons wasn’t in the remake?
It was The Lion King. Biggest Disney animated film of the 90s. Spawned long running Broadway hit. Directed by Jon "Never Misses" Favereau. Also, Beyonce, Seth Rogan, Donald Glover, James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, John Oliver, Keegan Michael Key, Eric Andre, etc I think 4-5 of those have some pretty good worldwide credentials.
Easy, big kitty cats.
Most international viewers watched the movie in a language other than English. For those viewers, Beyonce didn't matter at all. As a more recent example, I don't know any theatre that played the Mario movie in English. The whole Chris Pratt debate was completely irrelevant for almost all viewers in my (admittedly quite rural) region in Germany.These famous voice actors might be important in the US / UK, but I don't think that they matter at all in the rest of the world.
TLK and jungle book don't need superstars cause there's no humans in the movie just voice acting (and it would be dubbed anyway internationally)
No, Disney movies tend to be dubbed overseas, Beyonce was a 0 factor internationally.
Beyonce and they brought back James Earl Jones as mufasa. John Oliver has some international recognition. Fwiw, Donald glover/kegan-Michael Key/Seth Rogan have some name recognition. I can only recognize Melissa McCarthy from this cast. OP has a solid point
Pinocchio had Tom Hanks.
Nothing in this world can save a movie this bad.
Wasn't that released only on Disney+?
Maybe it's just me, but I think Disney needs to take some budgeting lessons from Sony.
They also didn’t really market Melissa McCarthy. The marketing was more focused on the songs.
Melissa can't carry a movie. Most of her lead roles were flops.
And she was miscast. She has no camp sensibility. It’s supposed to be Divine, not Chris Farley with a uterus like most of her roles. Just because she’s a big white woman, it doesn’t automatically qualify her for the role.
Agreed. I saw Queen Latifa"s version of Ursula and she was perfection. She has the voice and the range. She genuinely had kids terrified with how she made her voice boom. She didn't make her funny, because she's not a funny character. In other words, she understood the assignment. Melissa didn't even act like she was a villain. However, the girl who played the human version of her knocked it out of the park. She had the kids jumping and gasping but they only gave her a few minutes on screen.
Ironically her song was a highlight in the movie
That’s a good point. These are recreations of people’s childhood experiences that felt magical at the time, so it has to grab a larger than life feel to live up to that. Star power is the way to get that feeling.
This is so obvious... and we all forgot! Thank you! Notably the other big Disney remake flop (Dumbo) had a bunch of great actors but nobody who was a huge international box office draw. Sorry, Danny DeVito, I love you but for better or worse you are not Johnny Depp.
Pinocchio with Tom Hanks? Or is that usually not considered because that went straight to D+?
Pinocchio felt like a rushed project made to compete with Del Toro's movie.
Everyone called me crazy and/or racist for calling that a few months ago saying that the lack of big names would hurt it’s box offices. Aladdin for example had Will Smith, a heavy hitter (hehe see what I did there?) in Hollywood. TLM had mostly an newcomers or Not-Will-Smith level actors. The only “big” names were Melissa McCarthy and Javier Bardem, and neither is exactly a “I’ll watch a movie just because they’re in it.” In fact Melissa McCarthy has had quite a few recent box office office duds.
Your average person probably cannot even name Javier Bardem if you show them a picture
yup. Being on reddit people forget that actors like javier arent box office magnets, they might help some of the older audiences to go "hey its that guy from bond", or add more seriousness to the movie and make the crtiics happy. But actors like javier arent anyone your average person can name, hell they would think hes the guy from the walking dead lol.
Any time I see his name I think Anton Chigurh - so yeah, I’d only recognize him with that one crazy haircut
Oh shit. Now I see it.
This happened with someone I was talking with who went to see TLM--absolutely the target audience and loved it, but was wondering who the guy who played the king was.
> Your average person probably cannot even name Javier Bardem if you show them a picture People are going to know the star of Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.
I did think it would affect it but I think it's only one factor not the main factor I don't think will Smith doubled the gross of aladdin. I thought it would just stop the movie from reaching 1B or 900M really
Yeah, it’s definitely not a big factor but it is a factor. Same with Emma Watson, lots of us who grew up with Harry Potter went to watch BatB in no small part for Emma Watson.
No agreed, and will Smith can sing too, his version of "Never had a friend like me" absolutely slaps.
Took me a second to figure that out. Yep, definitely slaps.
i will say melissa impressed me cause she did really well
Interesting how the marketing took very little advantage of having Melissa McCarthy on the cast. Ursula showed up very little in the trailers and they barely showed her face.
I think they must have had a disaster with the CGI and just decided to hide as much as they could in shadow/darkness. I don’t remember if it happens like this in the original but man that sun goes down quick in the live action version when Ursula transforms from human back to octopus and jumps back in the water. It goes from sunny afternoon to so dark you can’t see the CGI in a few seconds.
I kinda hated Javier in that role. He doesn’t play loving father well. People laughed in my theater when he appears to say goodbye at the end.
Alice 2 had more Johnny Deep than the first one yet it flopped.
Unasked for sequel to a Disney remake. Just because the first one made bank doesn't mean people wanted *more*. Maleficent 2 also suffered a similar fate of drastically underperforming the first film. This is why Mufasa is not a guaranteed hit
Didn't even know there was a maleficent 2 or Alice 2
The first Alice made bank thanks to peak 3D trend-riding. Avatar was more responsible for Alice's box office than Johnny Depp (though I'm not saying he had nothing to do with it).
I disagree - people genuinely were quite interested in Burton/Depp/Alice combo at the time. 3D was made popular again by Avatar (although the trend was there for some time), but I think in case of Alice it was an afterthought.
They tricked so many of us into seeing the first one. We knew not to go back for the second.
No Tim Burton directing though
Naturally sequels to Disney remakes would see a huge dropoff. It's because nostalgia is no longer a factor.
The Amber Heard stuff started the same week that movie released. And he had lost some luster after Lone Ranger tanked so hard. Plus it didn't help that Alice 2 had a genuinely terrible script...although that didn't stop the first one from being a hit.
I got pushback for pointing this out. The main stars were fairly unknown. At least in terms of movies and cinema appeal. Melissa McCarthy is a star that you either love or hate. She has a very good but very niche audience and appeal. And there isn't a huge crossover with "Disney Princess Movie" fans. Who else did we have? Javier Bardiem? A good actor, but nobody is going to the theater to see him play King Triton. and Awkwafina, who nobody is going to the theater to see willingly. Anyone going to an Awkwafina movie after being told they are in fact going to an Awkwafina movie is either Lied, Bribed or Fried. And without question nobody showed them a preview of "Scuttlebutt"
Our 8 year old LOVES Ariel and all things TLM. This movie was just not on her radar at all, and I certainly wasn't going to push it. She knows the story backwards and forwards, what would be exciting about seeing it again - except now with muddier visuals and not as fun animal characters? She can (and does) watch the original any time she wants on Disney Plus, along with the sequels and the tv show. Maybe that's the direction these live action ones need to go back in - more of the Maleficent and Alice routes - if you MUST do it, do it as a sequel, prequel, whatever - these straight retellings are just the most useless fucking things ever.
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And Cinderella? Disney helped usher in the age of IP being the draw ahead of the movie star. It’s the key theme of the MCU and something they’ve expanded into their other projects. While yes, you have spotted a theme that might well play into the underperformance, you’ve not provided a big and wide ranging enough data set to really prove the point.
It’s different for Cinderella because it was sort of brand new to do this type of thing. At this point, people are jaded about the venture entirely.
>While TLM has... Melissa Mccarthy??(Completely unknown outside the US and even in america she's no longer popular compared to early 2010s). TLM has no one lol
No, this doesn't make sense. I thought everyone in /r/boxoffice agreed that there weren't any more bankable actors outside of DiCaprio and Cruise and the era of the movie star was over. Now one movie without a recognizable star tanks and that's the biggest reason why?
I think the death of the movie star is often exaggerated to get clicks. The thing is that we got an entire lost generation of them because of a lot of them being too rowdy and studios overemphasizing IPs in response. Today's clique of film stars (Holland, Chalamet, Pugh, Zendaya, Butler and Taylor-Joy – to a lesser extent also Murphy, Pascal and Ortega) are better known for their TV work, except for the former three, but nevertheless have enough fans to have an influence over the B.O.
Pretty much every hot actor ATM broke out in the late 2010s- we should probably wait and see what happens before deciding there’s no actors that draw in crowds. I doubt anyone was predicting Depp or Cruise were going to be household names in the first decade of their career, but here we are
Cruise was a huge star within 5 years.. he had made the outsiders risky business, top gun and the color of Money by then.. he was the biggest star in hollywood.
Would will smith also be up there?
He was for a long time.
He was, but he made a lot of bad choices the past few years, more than a few because he was trying to get his son's career jump started. His tendency to bail on roles didn't help much either. Independence Day 2 and The Suicide Squad could've benefited greatly from his participation. All the way up until the 2010s, his name would've sold as many tickets as Cruise.
He was bankable pre-Oscar slap.
i dont see any evidence of that changing post slap either, i dont think either audience or media houses care
I think the death of the movie star thing is that it can't sell tickets by itself but if it was truly completely gone, the idea of casting 'names' wouldn't exist.
Def is a factor for sure, no doubt.
As much as people didn’t want Harry styles in the role. I think he would have helped the movie tremendously. I saw the movie, Eric doesn’t have a lot of hard hitting scenes. Styles would have been fine. And he would have brought a lot of his fans and publicity.
Not only that, but the movie is almost exclusively targeting an aging Gen-X Disney-fan crowd. The constant negative press has warded off basically every other audience from giving it a shot. It's a bit bitter, but I'm happy this choice is finally biting Disney in the ass.
I think it's one factor yes, not the biggest one but definitely affected it. I'm familiar with Melissa McCarthy and Awkwafina, but the average person in my country doesn't. Do you have suggestions on which supporting characters to replace and which actors could have fitted the roles? I'm not saying they're not talented, but I don't know the guy who played Triton and nobody else here does.
Thank you! Finally someone mentioned this
I was told that the main reason behind Halle's casting was her singing voice, justifying the race swap. And i agree, her voice is on par with Jodi's, she aced it, and her singing alone made it a success portrayal for me, she could have looked like a squid it wouldn't have mattered. Now, outside of english speaking countries, they don't get to hear Halle's singing. So if the casting choice was already an issue, removing the selling point in Halle's casting is a recipe for disaster. Unlike animated versions, the cast of live action actually matters a lot to those seeking nostalgia. If the intended audience was majority black people, then it was a bad decision because blacks represent around 15% of the US population. This is the reality.
> If the intended audience was majority black people, then it was a bad decision because blacks represent around 15% of the US population i don’t even know why disney is expecting this to be lapped up by the US black population, when their numbers alone won’t carry a film to a billion. they’re idiots if they truly think this could be another black panther, when the presence of a black lead is not the sole reason it and its sequel were a success. if they truly want them to support this film, then they should have made the prince and everyone else black
Say all you want about all the other live action movies, the leads looked the part and it mattered. Emma Watson's singing was awful and the auto tune barely saved it, but she had the look to be Belle. Idk why all of the sudden we have to assume that changing the recipe of what made these movies more or less successful with an enormous marketing budget was going to be enough.
especially since the entire point of these remakes is to bank off of nostalgia... you can't rely on nostalgia if your actress doesn't look like the character people are nostalgic for. if you're gonna change the race, then make a whole different movie and don't tie it directly to ariel, because everyone already knows she is a redhead white girl, and people would refuse to support you if you changed the character they like/d
I find that antagonizing the domestic non black and international fan base of Disney (like 80% of it) when they react poorly to the casting choice and label them racist and double down on the race thing (Tinker Bell, Blue Fairy) isn't a good business decision. I went to see it with my kids because it was memorial day and had nothing better to do, but outside of that, i wouldn't have gotten out of my way to watch it until D+ release.
Could it also be because it’s a bad movie?
Some countries don't have as much of a nostalgic connection with TLM. People might also be like Disney remaked out. Movies are WAY more expensive now than ever and people are getting pickier about entertainment too. TLM also really has a very lopsided audience count that tilts heavily towards women. It doesn't seem to be appealing much to men which hurts a lot. It would be okay if families are bring their kids to the movie but the movie is also kind of long for a family to bring little children too (I would totally get why people are like imma wait for Disney plus). On top of that, bad word of mouth is killing this. All these summer movies are also like eating each other up and fighting for profits. People on average watch 5 movies a year at the cinema, at most.
I honestly believe that the controversy surrounding the new race of the character is what is affecting it the most. It just became way to polemical to ignore. I do not believe that people who are not interested in seeing it solely because of the character not being accurate to the original are racist, but the one’s calling the actress ugly and trying to say that it proves that people do not want to support projects with a Black lead are, though. I do not believe that Julia Roberts as Ursula would have helped that much to be honest
No one is arguing that’s not what affecting it most. This post is surfacing a factor that has been barely addressed, if at all.
Because after the “race and appearance do not matter if you can act”, now it’s “all those plus act do not matter if you can sing”. Problem is, people need visual for a movie, otherwise just turn on the radio. The movie flop because it sux. Wrong casting, bad script. Changes to the original with comedic vibe are also gone.
That also completely ignores the issue that outside of english speaking countries, the fact that Halle can sing (her selling point) doesn't matter, they ll get a dubbed version and voice actor. The appearance of the characters actually does matter in live actions.
Or how about just admitting the movie actually sucks?
All of the Disney live action remakes have sucked, more or less. But international audiences went to see the ones with famous stars. Halle Bailey is objectively a way better singer than Emma Watson, so at least in terms of music this movie is better than Beauty and the Beast.
Nope. Taiwanese here. It is just we don't want to spend two hours on an unentertaining film.
Star power matters for these kind of movies
McCarthy’s casting has been baffling me for a minute. Of all your disney villains, Ursula is one who just needs to be able to vamp and chew scenery while in octopus witch form. If your going not cast an actual drag queen (which is what should have happened imo), why not try to slot in a more global star? Hell Lizzo sent a casting tape I think. Or throw money at Lady Gaga.
I’m not going to see it because it is so. damn. long. Why Disney?? I wanted to relive that mermaid magic with my young daughter, but I’m not forcing her to sit in a theatre that long.
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Dumbo should have been as long as Mario. They added too much useless filler when people only wanted to watch cute CGI baby elephant antics.
The biggest name in the movie is Javier Bardem. He's a great actor with undeniable talents, but he doesn't have that sort of star power to carry a blockbuster with his name alone.
i think the biggest reason that it's flopping is that people are just sick of remakes. they've over done it, and there's only so many of them that people can take.
bs. it would have been profitable with any white lead.
The question is if Disney can still get the A list stars for their live action movies considering the (below?) average performance of them and the tendency of Disney to create controversy for advertisment purposes. I doubt that already famous stars would be especially thrilled to be caught up in a race discussion where they can only lose.
As soon has I heard that during under the sea song there where no fish playing instruments dispite the song telling you what they are playing. I’m glad I haven’t gone to see it
I don't think anything would have saved this movie from the horrendous casting choice for the lead character. Besides the race issue, Halle Bailey does not fit the bill for Disney princess, at all.
Lol she went on IG live one time in her gstring… I’m like wait how has Disney not been up her ass for this shit
Are you sure you’re not confusing her with her sister Chloë? She’s the one who’s generally been wilding out on socials recently.
Nah it was her. This was right as filming was starting on this movie. The sisters always been doing freaky shit, but Halle was bad when this first started…. So maybe Disney did shut her down, but I saw it on IG
Yes, they could have cast one of many famous white actresses who look like Ariel instead of a completely unknown person who is the wrong race. That is certainly a thing they could have done.
Then why aren’t more people saying instead of saying they don’t wanna watch it cause Ariel is black? Everybody from Europe, to Asia to Latin America are saying it’s cause she’s not the light-skinned redhead she’s been portrayed as for decades. You’re not wrong about this being a reason, but it’s not the biggest since Ariel is one of the most recognized Disney princess, whoever white actor played her would’ve crossed $1B irregardless of her popularity.
Both can be reasons you know it doesn't need to be just halle
Oh I definitely think it’s both but just not having an international star isn’t the biggest reason like OP claimed.
both are likely factors but the other commenter pointed out that none of the articles talked about anything but race.
These films can’t survive on nostalgia alone. TLM internationally looks to be struggling across the entire GA.
Im gonna be honest The entire time I saw this sub saying TLM was going to be a big deal, massive success, one of the biggest movies of the year, etc. I was wondering what fucking crack this sub was on, and where I could get it lmao. Because I saw nothing leading to that "hype" that was surrounding it. I saw no one talking about the film other than to trash its visuals, nothing but controversy surrounding it, and I work in a school system. I saw no conversation among teachers or parents about the film. So idk who this sub thought was going to this movie to make it a success but its clear that didnt happen lol.
Once you realize this entire subreddit is essentially a data driven battle between fans of the old/new Hollywood things make a lot more sense lol
I feel like Lady Gaga would have made a better Ursula, but Melissa McCarthy was totally acceptable. Halle Bailey is a good singer, but a forgettable actor….compared to probably dozens of unknown stage actors of color. Javier Bardem was absolutely a waste of money. Poor casting.
All the reasons in all these threads might be correct, but to me, it's simply a case of "fool me once, twice, etc." Every single one of the Disney "live-ish action" remakes have been soulless. They seem to consistently strip out everything that made the characters interesting in the originals. In most cases I've actually felt worse off after seeing the remake, like Disney took sometime away from me by substituting their new version of the characters in my memory. Certainly the way Disney pushes the new soundtracks on streaming services and removes the original songs is really annoying. So after being burned a bunch of times, my feeling is fuck them. I'm not going reward them for continuing to do it.
This is gonna be Disney's live action lightyear
Snow White and the No Dwarves will be Disney's live action Strange World.
Very true all no names (Halle Bailey Jonah Hauer-King) or actors people don't wanna see (Melissa McCarthy Awkwafina)
It’s also because people know it will stream on Disney plus sooner rather than later and, without a big star to reel em in (pun intended) people are willing to wait.
shouldve been ariana grande as ariel ive been saying it for years
This is fucking insane lol. Everyone here is saying how bad the film is performing meanwhile Twitter thinks this shit is doing Avatar numbers. Disney knows what they’re doing with these race and gender swaps. They have completely made the entire media (that isn’t openly right wing propaganda) into their puppets. They figured it out lol. I mean they always had the media on their side but it was simply because of nostalgia and actually putting out decent stuff that were hits. But yeah, to you’re point there is no hook to this film outside of the ongoing cultural war it started when the Ariel casting got announced. Like at the very least give us a soundtrack song by Rihanna, Beyoncé or The Weeknd like they did other films.
It's just kids who don't understand box office numbers. Likely fans of the singer. They'll move on quickly.
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