The early numbers are in, and so far, it’s looking like Disney’s newest version of the classic 1937 film “Snow White” is not doing well.
The live-action remake opened on Friday following a scaled-back Hollywood premiere. This was done in part due to multiple controversies surrounding the film, from the casting choices to the appearance of CGI dwarves. The movie’s lead, Rachel Zegler, went on record saying she didn’t care for the original film and that Prince Charming was a “stalker.” What could go wrong?
Everything, as it turns out. “Snow White” brought in a mere $3.5 million during Thursday previews and so far is projected to earn just $45 to $55 million during its opening weekend, per the Daily Mail.
For comparison, Disney’s live action update of “The Little Mermaid” (2023) made $95 million during its first weekend. Based on the current numbers, “Snow White” is tracking similarly to the live action “Dumbo” (2019), which also made $45 million in its early days. That film is considered a commercial failure.
Also, “Dumbo” had a $170 million production budget, while “Snow White” reportedly cost around $250 million, meaning it has a lot more ground to make up just to break even.
It’s not helping matters that “Snow White” was mostly trashed by the critics and currently has a 44% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
“Gloss prevails over heart in nearly every scene, and plot beats feel contrived,” a reviewer from The Wall Street Journal wrote.
The New York Times said of the film: “Neither good enough to admire nor bad enough to joyfully skewer; its mediocrity is among its biggest bummers.”
“Presumably one of the reasons to bring actors into remakes of animated classics would be to add a warm-blooded pulse to these characters. Zegler manages that, but everyone else in ‘Snow White’ — mortal or CGI — is as stiff as could be,” said a critic from The Associated Press.
Interestingly, the audience score ranks the film slightly higher at 71%, but the reviews are still mixed among moviegoers.
“The movie was poorly [cast], horribly acted and the CGI was bad as well. Don’t waste your money,” one person advised.
“When the credits roll and you see the story book drawings of the Seven Dwarfs and the woodland animals you are left wishing the movie you just saw was animated,” another person observed.
Even some of the positive reviews were sprinkled with criticism.
As one moviegoer said, “Cinematography and world building were great. Better than expected. The dwarves do appear to have been hatched in the uncanny valley but I got past it. I did like the flight through the forest but the dynamic between the queen and Snow White which could have propelled this film to be pretty good, just fell flat.”
