It was more of a “ho-hum” than a “heigh-ho” at the box office this weekend, as Walt Disney Co.’s latest live-action remake “Snow White” arrived in theaters.
The movie, which stars Rachel Zegler as the titular princess and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, opened in the U.S. and Canada to a lackluster $43 million in ticket sales, landing it in first place at the domestic box office, according to studio estimates. Prior to its release, “Snow White” was expected to haul in $45 million to $55 million in its opening weekend, according to analyst and pre-sale ticket estimates.
The film will have to have to do lots of business in the coming weeks to break even. It cost an estimated $250 million to make, before marketing expenses. The movie grossed $44 million overseas for a total global debut of $87 million.
The “Snow White” opening number is less than that of Tim Burton’s re-imagining of “Dumbo” in 2019, which went on to gross $353 million worldwide and was considered a disappointment.
It has been a slow first quarter at the box office. So far, there has been a downturn compared with results from last year, analysts have said. It’s likely that the full first-quarter box office numbers will finish lower compared with the same time period a year ago, which were already significantly weaker than the pre-pandemic norm.
Though the beginning of 2024 started off slowly, the latter part of the first quarter saw blockbuster hits like “Dune: Part Two” and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” each of which brought in at least $80 million in their opening weekends.
“To say that the stakes for ‘Snow White’ are only on Disney ignores the fact that this entire industry was expecting a better first quarter,” said Daniel Loria, senior vice president at the Boxoffice Co., which tracks theatrical data. “We really need to finish this month on the strongest note possible.”
“Snow White” faced a tough road to its opening weekend.
The film was hit with racist backlash after Zegler, who is of Colombian and Polish descent, was announced as the lead character. Then, die-hard fans criticized her for saying the new film would update tropes from the original 1937 animated movie, including the emphasis on Snow White’s romance with Prince Charming.
The film has also faced questions about its depiction of little people and its leading actors’ viewpoints on the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza; Zegler has been an outspoken advocate for Palestinians, while Gadot has voiced support for Israel, where she was born.
It’s unclear how much the external controversy around the film factored into its opening weekend results.
But Disney’s strategy of mining its animated film library for live-action remakes shows no signs of stopping. The Burbank media and entertainment company plans to release a live-action version of “Lilo & Stitch” in May.
The remakes are a risk-management plan of sorts — the films retell familiar stories while also giving Disney a chance, in some cases, to revise problematic aspects from the original animated movies, such as giving some of the princesses more agency and diversifying the casts.
Updating the original animated films also allows Disney to redirect attention to these characters. The company can then sell new merchandise from the live-action films and pump up interest and familiarity with the characters.
That translates to other parts of Disney’s vast empire, such as theme parks, streaming services and Broadway plays, said Peter Kunze, a professor of communication at Tulane University and author of “Staging a Comeback: Broadway, Hollywood, and the Disney Renaissance.”
“By doing these live-action remakes, it’s kind of like a defibrillator to the franchise,” he said. “It’s not only the theatrical distribution revenue stream that is dependent on this film; it’s often feeding into these other aspects of the company.”
Though fans have sometimes complained about the frequency of live-action remakes compared with original stories, these films can be big money-makers. The 2017 “Beauty and the Beast” grossed more than $1 billion worldwide, as did 2010’s “Alice in Wonderland,” 2019’s “The Lion King,” and 2019’s “Aladdin.”
And even if opening weekend is slow, these films can have a longer tail with audiences. “Snow White,” for instance, is coming at a time when many children will be on spring break, which means harried parents may be looking for things for their kids to do.
There’s little competition in the family movie space right now, with Warner Bros. Pictures “A Minecraft Movie” still two weeks away. StudioCanal’s “Paddington in Peru” (distributed by Sony in the U.S.), and Universal Pictures’ “Dog Man” came out weeks ago.
Last year’s “Mufasa: The Lion King” opened in December to a so-so $35 million domestically, but ended up grossing more than $717 million at the global box office. Family films can take a while to build buzz, and often don’t have the same types of fans who will clamor to see it in theaters as soon as possible, Loria said.
“This weekend will only tell us part of the story of ‘Snow White,’ ” he said. “The true measure of a performance of a movie like this happens in week three, week four, week five.”
