Disney's Snow White Remake Struggles to Break Even Amid Slow Box Office Start

Snow White, the latest live-action remake from Disney, faced a challenging start at the box office, marking one of the lowest domestic openings for the studio's remakes to date. Directed by Marc Webb, known for his work on The Amazing Spider-Man films, Snow White managed to pull in $43 million domestically during its opening weekend. This figure, while sufficient to lead the box office charts for the week and rank as the second biggest opener of 2025 behind Captain America: Brave New World, fell short of the $45 million debut of the 2019 live-action Dumbo and below industry expectations.

For perspective, other Disney remakes such as 2019's The Lion King, 2017's Beauty and the Beast, 2016's The Jungle Book, and 2023's The Little Mermaid all surpassed the $100 million mark in their domestic opening weekends.

Internationally, Snow White's performance was similarly subdued, earning $44.3 million over its opening weekend. This brings the global total to $87.3 million, according to Comscore estimates.

The film, a reimagining of Disney's 1937 animated classic, stars Rachel Zegler, known for her musical talents, in the titular role, and Gal Gadot, famous for her portrayal of Wonder Woman, as the Evil Queen. With a reported production budget exceeding $250 million, Snow White faces a steep climb to profitability, especially when factoring in marketing expenses.

Despite the initial setback, there is hope for Snow White to follow in the footsteps of Mufasa: The Lion King, a prequel to Disney's The Lion King remake. Mufasa opened to a modest $35.4 million domestically but went on to amass over $717 million worldwide. Disney is undoubtedly banking on a similar turnaround for Snow White.

Meanwhile, Captain America: Brave New World continues to perform well, accumulating $400.8 million globally after six weekends, with $192.1 million from the domestic market and $208.7 million from international territories.

IGN's review of Snow White awarded it a 7/10, praising the film for its meaningful adaptation of the original story, rather than merely replicating it.