The Little Mermaid backdrop
The Little Mermaid movie poster

The Little Mermaid

1989 1h 23m Adventure, Animation, Family Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Somewhere under the sea and beyond your imagination is an adventure in fantasy.

Box office summary
Domestic Total
$75.7M
Final
Opening Weekend
$2.5M
3-day opening
Domestic Legs
30.0x
Opening → Total
Budget
$40.0M
Production budget
Worldwide Total
$235M
$159M international
Compare with other movies
Box office performance
Weekend Rank Gross Chg Total Theaters Average Wks
Nov 17-19 3 $6.0M $6.0M 994 $6K 1
Nov 24-26 3 $8.4M +39.0% $16.8M 999 $8K 2
Dec 1-3 5 $4.0M -51.9% $22.1M 999 $4K 3
Dec 8-10 7 $2.8M -31.4% $25.7M 999 $3K 4
Dec 15-17 4 $2.5M -8.7% $28.9M 1,249 $2K 5
Dec 22-25 6 $3.3M +31.6% $34.1M 1,513 $2K 6
Dec 29-Jan 1 3 $9.2M +178.2% $49.4M 1,521 $6K 7
Jan 5-7 5 $4.6M -50.4% $56.1M 1,521 $3K 8
Jan 12-14 6 $3.9M -16.0% $60.9M 1,521 $3K 9
Jan 19-21 8 $2.8M -26.7% $65.2M 1,533 $2K 10
Jan 26-28 9 $2.2M -23.0% $68.1M 1,530 $1K 11
Feb 2-4 12 $1.9M -14.2% $70.4M 1,457 $1K 12
Feb 9-11 12 $1.3M -28.2% $72.1M 1,323 $1K 13
Feb 16-19 Presidents' Day 9 $1.8M +32.4% $74.3M 1,325 $1K 14
Feb 23-25 11 $1.0M -40.9% $75.7M 1,157 $906 15

Profitability

Return on Budget
Theatrical breakeven point is approx. 2.5x production budget

Domestic vs International Split

Cast & Crew

Directed byJohn Musker, Ron Clements
ScreenplayJohn Musker, Ron Clements
Produced byHoward Ashman, John Musker
MusicAlan Menken
StarringJodi Benson, Samuel E. Wright, Pat Carroll, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Kenneth Mars, Buddy Hackett
StudioWalt Disney Studios Motion Pictures