THE LITTLE MERMAID makes a splashy debut on tracking.

Watch out for this one.

The live-action update of THE LITTLE MERMAID (5/26/23) is now less than a year away from release, which means it’s been added to The Quorum. And boy did it land with a splash. 

MERMAID is a continuation of Disney’s strategy of converting its late 80s – early 90s animated classics into live-action features. So far, it has proven to be enormously lucrative for the studio. 

The three most recent examples, BEAUTY & THE BEAST (2017), ALADDIN (2019), and THE LION KING (2019) have all grossed over $1 billion worldwide. These are impressive numbers. 

Based on the early tracking for MERMAID, it looks well-positioned to reach ten figures as well. It debuts with 49% awareness, which immediately places it among the top 10 films currently being tracked by The Quorum. Talk about the power of IP.

These awareness numbers really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. MERMAID has consistently scored well on The Franchise Index. Among all respondents, 23% say they would see a sequel to THE LITTLE MERMAID. That ranks 37^th among the 140+ franchises we actively track. 

When we look at interest in a sequel among just women, the number jumps to 29%, which places it among the top 10 franchises on the Index. 

Bottom line, with this kind of hot start, we should get used to seeing MERMAID at the top of The Quorum charts for the next 12 months.