Finally, it looks like Ariel will be part of our world one more time as Disney has announced that the live-action adaptation of the beloved movie musical “The Little Mermaid” will swim onto Disney+ on Wednesday, Sept. 6. The film stars Halle Bailey as Ariel, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, in addition to a whole host of talented performers, and in one month, you will be able to experience all of the under-the-sea excitement on-demand.
Disney’s #TheLittleMermaid is making a splash at home! 🌊
— Disney+ (@DisneyPlus) August 7, 2023
Stream it September 6 on #DisneyPlus! pic.twitter.com/kR1H7j82YJ
To date, the film has grossed over $564 million worldwide, including a $297M total domestically. Review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes has a critical score of 67% for the film, but the audience score currently comes in at 94%. By waiting until Sept. 6 to release the film on streaming, Disney is allowing “The Little Mermaid” the opportunity to continue generating box office receipts through the Labor Day holiday weekend in any theaters where it is still available, but more importantly on video-on-demand platforms like Prime Video where it is available to rent or buy.
With the musical spectacular arriving Disney+ on Sept. 6, that means that it will have taken 103 days for the film to go from cinema to streaming. Initially, The Streamable predicted that the film would be available to the company’s flagship platform on Sept. 22, putting it in line with other recent Disney release windows of 120 days. However, perhaps driven by a somewhat underwhelming box office performance, or the fact that kids across the country would be back in school by early September, the company is letting the movie surface on streaming a few weeks ahead of anticipated.
Disney+
Disney+ is a video streaming service with over 13,000 series and films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, The Muppets, and more. It is available in 61 countries and 21 languages. It is notable for its popular original series like “The Mandalorian,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Loki,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” and “Andor.”