Breaking Down The “Snow White” Box-Office

The weekend may not be over, but the box-office tallies are still coming in and by end of Sunday it looks like Disney’s live-action take on “Snow White” will come in under expectations in each market.

A few weeks ago it was hoped the update of the classic 1937 animation was going to score $65 million domestically and over $50 million internationally. Now that we’re here, the actual numbers have turned out to be $43 million domestically and $44.3 million overseas for an $87.3 million worldwide total.

According to Deadline, the launch is being compared to “Dumbo” not just in terms of actual box-office numbers.

Disney faces a common issue with the live-action adaptations of early 20th century Disney musicals and animated movies, namely that they open notably lower than titles based on films that opened towards the end of the 20th century – ie. “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin,” “The Lion King,” etc.

At 88 years old, Disney’s original “Snow White” is very long in the tooth with the remake dubbed “antiquated and boring” according to one social media analyst sharing common responses he received while delving into the film’s negative buzz.

As the trade says, Disney has successfully tackled that in the past through character-driven reinterpretations like “Cruella” and “Maleficent” rather than more straightforward remakes like this.

But what about the controversy? It’s no secret the film has been subjected to a lot of discussion over past comments by its stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, along with the studio itself, which has turned the film into something of a political football and dubbed “Snow Woke” in some corners. Did all of that have any actual impact on the box-office?

Funnily enough, it appears the film over-indexed in the U.S. conservative countries. Family films generally see 40% of their attendance coming from ‘Red’ counties, in this case it has accounted for 43.5% of admissions. Rather than a “red theater blockade”, one analyst tells the trade that “Red counties performed better than they would normally for a family/animated film of this size and scope”.

The casting of Latina actress Rachel Zegler in the title role, which saw a pushback by trolls at the time, also appears to have helped the film overperform in Latino and Hispanic markets.

The film certainly debuted better than “Alto Knights,” the Barry Levinson-directed gangster drama bombed on arrival with just $3.1 million for its opening weekend – not good for a $50 million budget project.

In limited release, Jonathan Majors’ comeback vehicle “Magazine Dreams” scored just $700,000 across 815 screens, the Bill Skarsgard thriller “Locked” made just $900,000 from 971 screens, and the Eiza Gonzalez sci-fi film “Ash” made just $716,000 from 1,136 screens.

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