Snow White has hit a major box office milestone. The newest Disney live-action remake, which was directed by (500) Days of Summer and The Amazing Spider-Man‘s Marc Webb, stars Rachel Zegler in the title role opposite Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen and an ensemble cast that also includes Andrew Burnap, Ansu Kabia, Patrick Page, Jeremy Swift, Tituss Burgess, Andrew Barth Feldman, and Martin Klebba. Snow White reviews have been mixed to negative, with critics cumulatively giving it a Rotten Tomatoes score of 40%, though audiences have so far largely diverged from critics, giving it 72% on the Popcornmeter.
Per Deadline, as of Saturday morning, Snow White is projected to take in a 3-day haul of $2.8 million at the domestic box office by the end of its fourth weekend in theaters. Although this sees it falling from No. 4 to No. 8 on the domestic Top 10 chart amid the debut of a cadre of major new releases including The King of Kings, Drop, and The Amateur, the weekend pushes its cumulative domestic total past the $80 million milestone, to a projected $81.2 million.
It Is Still Nowhere Near Breaking Even
Although it is only the fourth 2025 release to pass the $80 million domestic milestone so far, the huge Snow White budget remains a major hurdle. Because it reportedly cost roughly $250 million, this most likely means it needs to gross $625 million worldwide just to break even. It is currently not on track to get anywhere close to that total. Below, see how its domestic performance in weekend 4 compares to Disney’s lowest-grossing live-action remakes from the last 10 years that were direct adaptations rather than sequels, prequels, or reimaginings:
All three of the previous lowest-grossing Disney live-action remakes made less than $625 million worldwide, which is not good news for Snow White, especially considering the fact that 2023’s The Little Mermaid had a cumulative domestic gross that was more than triple its $81.2 million by the end of its fourth weekend. In fact, if Snow White follows Dumbo‘s trajectory, it might only make $283.8 million, which is just barely more than its reported production budget.
Snow White Is Another 2020s Misfire
Image via Disney
It makes sense that the roster of Disney live-action remakes continues to grow, because multiple installments are billion-dollar movies. However, every single one of those – 2010’s Alice in Wonderland ($1.025 billion), 2017’s Beauty and the Beast ($1.263 billion), and 2019’s Aladdin ($1.051 billion) and The Lion King ($1.657 billion) – came out prior to the 2020s. The Snow White numbers, which may barely scrape a quarter of that billion-dollar milestone, could be indicative of an overall downward live-action trend. For instance, 2024’s Mufasa: The Lion King ($626.7 million) was a success, but it made less than half of its predecessor’s gross.
The upcoming live-action Lilo & Stitch [could] become their first billion-dollar live-action remake of the 2020s…
However, as the box office continues to recover after the pandemic-era shutdowns in the early 2020s, Disney has two important opportunities to assess the health of their live-action remakes in the coming months. The upcoming live-action Lilo & Stitch, which debuts in May, could potentially harness its iconic (and much-merchandised) character to become their first billion-dollar live-action remake of the 2020s. Similarly, the live-action Moana, which debuts in July 2026 and features Dwayne Johnson returning as Maui, follows the billion-dollar animated sequel Moana 2 into theaters by less than two years, so it could continue to ride that wave.
Disney’s Budgets May Need To Go Lower
Gal Gadot as Evil Queen looking down from a balcony in Snow White 2025
It seems that Disney’s response to Snow White‘s severe underperformance has been to slow down on remaking their princess movies, as development on the live-action Tangled was recently paused. However, the bigger issue is the budget level. By its raw numbers, the new movie could have been a mid-tier blockbuster if it hadn’t cost $250 million (a total that ballooned amid reshoots). If it makes $280 million, it will outgross the worldwide hauls of many recent movies with lower budgets that were considered successes, including The Garfield Movie ($257.2 million), Smile 2 ($138.1 million), and Creed III ($276.1 million).
Creed III broke the record for the biggest opening weekend for a sports movie in 2023.
Additionally, the release has been mired in Snow White backlash, following controversy about its depiction of the seven dwarfs, the leads’ publicly opposing views on Israel and Palestine, Rachel Zegler’s critiques of the original 1937 movie, and much more. This unique and politically charged conversation is baggage that probably wouldn’t affect future Disney live-action remakes, at least to the same degree, so it is entirely possible that the performance of the 2025 movie is something of an outlier and not indicative of a downward princess trend, even though The Little Mermaid also underperformed, though to a much less severe degree.
