Disney’s latest box office outing finally released over the weekend, though many audiences chose to pass up on the newest remake from the Mouse House.
Snow White, a live-action remake of the classic 1937 animated flick Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, ended its opening weekend on the lower end of box office projections, collecting $43 million from about 4,200 theaters. The weak opening weekend follows several controversies surrounding the film’s release, several of which stemmed from lead actress Rachel Zegler.
The film’s opening puts it among the smaller ones for Disney live-action remakes, as other films like 2019’s The Lion King and 2017’s Beauty and the Beast grossed over $191 million and over $174 million in their respective opening weekends. The closest opening weekend comparison to Snow White’s would be 2019’s Dumbo remake, which opened to a little less than $46 million and went on to gross under $115 million in North America.
Ahead of the release of Snow White, which was delayed from its 2024 release in October 2023, the film generated controversy when Zegler, who plays the title character, expressed hope on social media that President Donald Trump and his supporters would “never know peace.” Zegler later apologized for those remarks, claiming she “let my emotions get the best of me.”
Zegler also drew attention in August 2024 when she said “free Palestine.” The actress’s co-star in the film, Gal Gadot, is Israeli and expressed support for Israel in October 2023 following Hamas’s attack on the country.
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Reviews for Disney’s latest offering, which only went public about a day before the film began playing in theaters on Thursday, were not particularly kind, as the film currently sits at 43% on movie review website Rotten Tomatoes as of Sunday evening. A little more than a week before release, Disney conducted a scaled back premiere for the film.
Should Snow White continue to suffer at the box office, it will not be the first Disney flick of 2025 to underperform financially, as Captain America: Brave New World only just passed the $400 million mark globally.