Numbers don’t lie, but the Hollywood legacy media sure does about the Snow White opening day box office.
The numbers are in, and they paint a grim picture for Bob Iger just says after an embarassing Disney shareholders meeting. Disney’s live-action Snow White remake is off to an alarmingly weak start, earning just $12 million on Friday alone, and totaling $16 million including Thursday previews. For a film that cost Disney over $250 million before marketing, this is nothing short of a disaster—and no amount of media spin can gloss over that fact.
Dopey in the Live Action Snow White movie – YouTube, Disney
Of course, that hasn’t stopped legacy outlets like Variety from doing their best to sugarcoat the situation. Their latest piece boldly claims that Snow White is “the fairest of them all” at the box office, touting that it’s the second highest opening film of the year (It’s March…) completely ignoring how soft the numbers truly are. According to Variety, Snow White is supposedly “on track” for a $45 million opening weekend, and they present this as some sort of triumph. But anyone paying attention knows better.
Let’s put this into perspective. Marvel’s The Marvels, which has become synonymous with box office failure, pulled in $21.3 million on its opening Friday—a figure far higher than Snow White’s $12 million haul. The Marvels opened to $46 million, prompting widespread discussion about the state of Marvel and Disney’s ongoing struggles. Yet here we are, watching Snow White perform far worse, and outlets like Variety are pretending it’s business as usual.
The comparisons only get more desperate. Variety and The Hollywood Reporter have tried to draw parallels to 2019’s Dumbo, which earned $15.3 million on its first Friday and finished its opening weekend with $46 million. What they conveniently fail to mention is that Dumbo cost significantly less to make—$170 million compared to Snow White’s bloated $250M+ budget. Dumbo was also considered a major box office disappointment.
Mufasa (voiced by Braelyn Rankins) in Disney’s MUFASA: THE LION KING. Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2024 Disney Enterprises Inc. All Rights Reserved.
They also reference Mufasa: The Lion King as a hopeful comparison. That film opened modestly but had the advantage of the Christmas corridor, international markets, and far stronger legs. Snow White has none of those advantages. The Snow White opening box office had to land strong immediately, and it’s clear it hasn’t.
The media’s next fallback? Audience scores. Variety eagerly touts a B+ CinemaScore as if it’s some glowing endorsement. But let’s not kid ourselves. For a Disney princess film, a B+ is mediocre. Past live-action remakes like Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin earned A-range scores. A B+ signals clear audience indifference, not enthusiasm. The film sits at a 44% rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing.
And let’s not ignore why Snow White is floundering. Rachel Zegler’s endless PR blunders, the controversy over replacing the Seven Dwarfs, the uninspired creative direction—it all led here. Disney’s attempt to rewrite one of its most iconic classics alienated much of the fanbase long before tickets went on sale.
Rachel Zegler as Snow White in Snow White (2025), Walt Disney Studios
What’s truly baffling is how legacy media continues to run cover for Disney rather than confront reality. The Snow White opening box office is underperforming by every metric. A $12 million Friday haul is not a victory. When even The Marvels, a film derided as a flop, outpaces this release by nearly half, it’s clear audiences are rejecting Disney’s latest offering.
No amount of glossy headlines can change the math.
What’s your reaction to the Snow White opening day box office? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
UP NEXT: Snow White Movie Review: Gal Gadot Hams, Zegler Belts, and Audiences Bolt from This Mess of a Film
I was so sure this movie would get at most $5.5 million for its opening weekend. Oh, well. A lemming can dream.
Those numbers are damning. We also have strong reason to believe that stated budget is a lie (as is every other budget for Disney movies). Even at $250 million, the movie would need to make at least $800 million just to break even. Right now it’s on track to lose half a billion at least. Not even Mouse House can spin that as anything but a total loss.
Before anyone tries to bring up the shareholders, please don’t. I’m now convinced the majority have signed over proxy rights to the woke Board. Meaning the Board has their voting power. That’s why they voted to keep DEI policies in place after Thursday’s shareholder meeting despite growing public and federal backlash. Either they’re true believers or more likely they’re deluded into thinking someone or something (likely the WEF) will reward them for their loyalty pushing a globalist agenda. Same with JPMorgan who rebranded it DOI (Diversity, Opportunity, and Inclusion; lazy much?).