What was the production budget of The Little Mermaid (1989)?
Answer
$40 million
The production budget of The Little Mermaid (1989) was $40 million. For a traditionally animated feature released in 1989, that made the film an unusually ambitious and expensive Disney production.
The movie was developed by Walt Disney Feature Animation and directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, with Howard Ashman and Alan Menken shaping its musical identity. Its budget supported extensive hand-drawn animation, elaborate underwater sequences, effects animation, and a large original soundtrack.
The film ultimately became a major commercial and artistic success, helping revive Disney’s feature-animation division and launching what is commonly called the Disney Renaissance. It was released on November 17, 1989, and won Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for “Under the Sea.”
The figure refers to the 1989 animated film, not the 2023 live-action remake, whose reported production budget was vastly higher. Marketing and distribution expenses are also separate from the production budget.