- Opening weekend box office projections look disappointing
- Critics pan the movie, but audience ratings fare better
- The controversies surrounding the live-action remake
Disney’s live-action adaptation of their classic animated Snow White is shaping up to be one of the franchise’s worst-performing movies in recent years.
Read more: Snow White Rotten Tomatoes score is in and it’s not great
Based on projections, the movie starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot will end up below the 2023 Little Mermaid remake after the opening weekend, which opened with $95 million. According to a report from Deadline at Midday on Friday 21 March, it’s looking more likely it will be more in line with 2019’s Dumbo. The Tim Burton movie launched with $45 million, falling well short of expectations.
Read more: Who is Snow White’s Andrew Burnap?
Whereas Burton’s Dumbo remake only required $170 million to produce, the new Snow White movie cost Disney over $250 million – and that’s without factoring in marketing costs.
There’s still hope for Snow White to make up some ground, especially with its Saturday and Sunday matinee showings, which are likely to be popular with young girls, considering its target audience of women. Additionally, audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes are notably higher than critics reviews, with a current score of 71%.
Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King recently demonstrated how a slow opening weekend can ultimately result in healthy numbers. The prequel to the live-action The Lion King earned $35.4 million in its opening weekend, but as of now, it has a worldwide box office total of $717.2 million.
How has Snow White reviewed?
While Disney fans might be enjoying the musical fantasy remake, it’s failing to impress critics.
The New York Post gave it a pitiful two stars and branded the movie “another pointless and awkward live-action automaton that vanishes from your mind the second it’s over.”
The Marc Webb-directed remake also only received a two-star review from Empire, which criticized the portrayal of the dwarves. The review described them as “an unholy VFX disaster,” noting that they slow the film to a crawl every time they appear. It also pointed out that there’s no sense of the glowing enchanted forest blending with scenes shot in real woodlands, nor do the dwarves seem to belong alongside the live-action characters.”
There was some praise to be found amidst the barrage of critical reviews. USA Today praised lead actress Zegler, saying she “adds a healthy dose of gumption missing from the OG Snow. She sparks well off the roguish and slightly snarky Burnap and the imperious Gadot, who snaps crab legs with divine menace”.
Controversy
Disney faced backlash from right-wing critics for casting Zegler as Snow White, given that in the original fairytale, the princess is named for her skin being as white as snow. With Zegler’s Colombian ancestry, many felt the casting choice prioritized ‘woke’ behavior over tradition.
Zegler hit back telling Variety that the name origin “fell back to another version of ‘Snow White’ that was told in history, where she survived a snowstorm that occurred when she was a baby.”
The criticism was reminiscent of the reaction to Halle Bailey, who is a black woman, being cast as Ariel in 2023’s The Little Mermaid remake. Right-wing critics slammed Hollywood for embracing diversity in casting and characterization.
Snow White also attracted negative comments over its decision to not diversify the story in respect to its seven dwarves. Dwarf actor Peter Dinklage, best known for playing Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones had some harsh words to say on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast. “They were very proud to cast a Latino actress as Snow White, but you’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. You’re progressive in one way and you’re still making that [expletive] …backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together”, he told Maron.
A few days later, the Wrap reported that Disney producers had restyled the dwarfs as “magical creatures.” VFX and voice actors were used to depict Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy and Sneezy to avoid reinforcing stereotypes. However, this also caused unrest from actors with dwarfism who have said they would have liked the opportunity to play the roles.
