Cher’s 80’s renaissance between Silkwood and Moonstruck had her riding the peak of her film credibility, but after her Oscar win, she was also reportedly paralysed by it. Mermaids ended up being the last significant film role she’d take for almost a decade. As for Winona Ryder, she was busier than ever – Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael was released just a couple of months before, and Edward Scissorhands came out the same day as Mermaids in December of 1990. And this was also Christina Ricci’s film debut at nine years old. She’d go straight from this to Wednesday Addams the next year.
Orion Pictures were circling the drain financially when Mermaids came out. The film made $35 million on a $20 million budget, which was decent but not enough to matter. A year later Orion filed for Chapter 11, despite having released both Dances with Wolves and Silence of the Lambs. They even sold The Addams Family to Paramount mid-production to raise cash, that film went on to gross $113 million.
It never became the teen sleepover staple or the prestige classic it probably should have been, but it holds a steady place for the kids who saw their own home lives reflected in this messy, unsettled family. I’ve always had the softest of spots for this one.
-Pop
Mermaids arrived on Home Video today in 1991, after making a small splash with a December 14th, 1990 theatrical release.