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Mena Massoud, who starred as Aladdin in the movie's 2019 remake, has deleted his Twitter after facing backlash for his commentary on Disney's latest box office film, The Little Mermaid, TMZ reports.
The Twitter debacle began with Massoud's response to a tweet reporting that The Little Mermaid was on track to earn more than Aladdin in its opening weekend.
"'The Little Mermaid' is tracking to earn $115M on its domestic box office opening weekend. In comparison, ‘Aladdin' earned $112M on its opening," a tweet by The Hollywood Handle reads.
In a now-deleted tweet, Massoud claimed that the Halle Bailey film wouldn't "cross the billion mark" because viewers won't come to see the movie more than once as they did for Aladdin.
"Our film was unique in that audiences went to watch it multiple times. It's the only way we reached the billion-dollar mark with our opening. My guess is [The Little Mermaid] doesn't cross the billion mark but will undoubtedly get a sequel," Massoud tweeted.
The Aladdin star's comment sent social media into an uproar. Many Twitter users felt Massoud was shading The Little Mermaid by suggesting it wasn't worthy of a possible sequel. Others believe Massoud was "bitter" that The Little Mermaid was on track to outperform his 2019 film.
Following the widespread backlash, Massoud deleted his Twitter. The actor has yet to publicly respond to criticism of his comment.
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