How Far Could ‘Snow White’ Fall at the Box Office?

As bad as it could get, the Disney remake isn't expected to lose No. 1 to any of the five new wide releases coming this weekend The post How Far Could ‘Snow White’ Fall at the Box Office? appeared first on TheWrap.

Mar 27, 2025 - 19:40

How Far Could ‘Snow White’ Fall at the Box Office?

After a lackluster $42 million opening weekend and soft mid-week returns, the outlook is bleak for Disney’s “Snow White.” But despite that, it is expected to hold on to No. 1 even as five wide releases, including Amazon MGM’s “A Working Man” and A24’s “Death of a Unicorn,” are set to hit theaters.

Between Monday and Wednesday, the latest Disney remake grossed $8.6 million, bringing its domestic total to $50.8 million after six days. By comparison, the 2019 remake of “Dumbo,” opened to $45.9 million and grossed $9.8 million in its first Mon.-Wed. period before earning a second weekend total of $18.2 million, a 60% drop from its opening weekend.

“Snow White” should have a similar second weekend total, perhaps doing a little better and cracking $20 million. The one bit of good news for the film is that reception has been strong among family and female audiences, the core audience Disney needs to leg out through spring break.

But with a $250 million-plus production budget — well above the $170 million of “Dumbo” — just legging out with the core audience is not enough. Films with that price tag need to get four-quadrant success to turn a theatrical profit. And with tepid critics’ reviews and general disinterest from male moviegoers and other general audience demos, “Snow White” isn’t going to get that.

Unfortunately for theaters, there isn’t much traction for the myriad alternatives coming to theaters this weekend. The Jason Statham action film “A Working Man” is tracking the best of the bunch, but its projections are topping out short of “Snow White” with $12 million. That’s below the $16.5 million start earned last year by Statham’s “The Beekeeper.”

David Ayer directed the film and co-wrote it with Sylvester Stallone, who is also producing with Ayer. Black Bear and Punch Palace are also producers on the movie, which has received mildly positive reviews with a 64% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Meanwhile, two different flavors of horror films will go head-to-head with Universal/Blumhouse’s “The Woman in the Yard” up against A24’s more comedic “Death of a Unicorn.” The latter is expected to have a better opening weekend, but it’s not looking like a magical one with projections of a $5-7 million start.

A24 brought “Death of a Unicorn” to a premiere at SXSW in the hopes of building buzz amongst genre fans, but it’s not getting help from critics who were lukewarm on the film with a 59% Rotten Tomatoes score. The film will need incredibly strong word-of-mouth from Gen Z moviegoers, particularly those who are fans of leads Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega, to have any hope of legs.

“The Woman in the Yard,” meanwhile, is looking at a poor start of less than $5 million from 2,800 theaters. Blumhouse had an uncharacteristically poor 2024 at the box office, failing to yield a film that stood among the top 5 highest grossing horror films for the year.

With “The Woman in the Yard” likely to be the latest original bust for the film, Blumhouse is going to have to turn — like the rest of Hollywood — to sequels to make a buck. While the studio has one more non-sequel coming up in April with the cellphone thriller “Drop,” the rest of its 2025 slate is highlighted by sequels to “M3GAN,” “The Black Phone” and “Five Nights at Freddy’s.”

Finally, a pair of specialty offerings hit theaters this weekend. For older audiences, Sony Pictures Classics is releasing “The Penguin Lesson,” a true story inspirational film starring Steve Coogan as a teacher in 1970s Argentina who finds a way to engage with his disinterested students with the help of a penguin that has unexpectedly bonded to him.

Also hitting theaters ahead of Easter is Fathom’s “The Chosen: The Last Supper,” which continues the hit series’ adaptation of the Gospel by showing Jesus Christ’s arrival in Jerusalem and his final days before his crucifixion. Both “The Last Supper” and “The Penguin Lesson” are expected to open in the single digits.

The post How Far Could ‘Snow White’ Fall at the Box Office? appeared first on TheWrap.