*“The Little Mermaid” isn’t performing well in China, where moviegoers are said to be averse to Blackness.
According to Urban Hollywood 411, the Disney title earned $68.3 million abroad, and just $2.5 million over the weekend in China. Meanwhile, “Fast X” tops the mainland China box office, topping the $100 million mark.
Disney’s live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” stars a Black woman (Halle Bailey) in the lead role for the first time. Chinese audiences tend to ignore films with prominent Black characters, so the fact that Bailey’s mermaid is tanking in the country comes as no shocker.
When Bailey’s casting was initially announced, she caught heat from racist Americans who expressed fury over a Black woman being cast as Princess Ariel.
According to Variety, the Global Times, a state-controlled tabloid paper, wrote: “Many Chinese netizens said that like ‘Snow White’ the image of the mermaid princess in Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales has long been rooted in their hearts and it takes a leap of imagination to accept the new cast.”
The editorial also accused Disney of “political correctness” and added, “The controversy surrounding Disney’s forced inclusion of minorities in classic films is not about racism, but its lazy and irresponsible storytelling strategy.”
Per Variety, a Global Times op-ed addressing the issues stated: “A number of netizens from Western countries on Twitter have attacked Chinese audiences, alleging that poor box office numbers are due to ‘racial discrimination.’ This is to impose their politically correct standards on Chinese audiences, and use this to sow discord between China and African groups,” it said. “China has always maintained brotherly relations with Africa and has never needed an ‘atonement’ mentality prevalent in Hollywood.”
READ MORE: Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ Swims Past $117 Million at US box Office on Opening Weekend | VIDEO
