Things were a little bit more sleepy than happy for Disney’s Snow White this weekend, as the controversy-inflicted live-action adaptation opened to a bashful $43 million at the domestic box office.
Starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, the reimagined take on Disney’s 1937 classic had a reported production budget of around $250 million and seemed to once be in the studio’s good graces before an onslaught of controversy poisoned its anticipation right to the core.
Alongside a disappointing domestic opening—by Disney’s standards at least—Snow White also proceeded to fumble with critics, earning a 43 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. The Daily Beast’s Nick Schager for one deemed the film “the lamest Mouse House re-do of them all” in his review and penned that its “every alteration is less a move in the right direction than a step on a face-smacking rake.”
While the film may not have been a critic darling, its audience score on Rotten Tomatoes soared miles ahead at a passing 74 percent. It also additionally opened to $44.3 million overseas, culminating into a worldwide total of $87.3 million.
Although backlash significantly curtailed Snow White’s promotion and soured its release, Disney has not necessarily been having the biggest, immediate wins on the live-action front over the past few months.
The studio’s live-action Lion King prequel, Mufasa: The Lion King, bombed in its opening weekend last December with a $35.4 million domestic total only to ultimately stampede ahead and surpass $717 million worldwide.
Although it’s possible that Snow White will be able to achieve a similar effect, the film’s launch has still paled in comparison to its recent princess predecessors with 2023’s The Little Mermaid and 2019’s Aladdin posting $95.5 million and $91.3 million respectively over a three-day domestic debut.
Instead, Snow White has notably opened behind the studio’s 2019 adaptation of Dumbo which earned a whopping $46 million at the time of its release.
2025 has arguably seen a rough start for Hollywood with the second new release of the weekend, Warner Bros.’ Alto Knights starring Robert De Niro, only nabbing $3.2 million against a $45 million budget.
Meanwhile, trailing behind Snow White in this weekend’s top-five are Black Bag, Captain America: Brave New World, Mickey 17, and Novocaine, which respectively added between $4 million to $3 million to their domestic totals this weekend.
