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

Snow White, directed by Marc Webb of The Amazing Spider-Man fame, faced a challenging start at the box office, pulling in a domestic total of $43 million during its opening weekend. This figure, while enough to lead the week's chart and rank as the second biggest domestic opener of 2025 behind only Captain America: Brave New World, falls short of expectations and trails behind the 2019 debut of the live-action Dumbo, which earned $45 million. For comparison, other Disney remakes like 2019’s The Lion King, 2017’s Beauty and the Beast, 2016’s The Jungle Book, and 2023’s The Little Mermaid all boasted opening weekends exceeding $100 million domestically.

Internationally, Snow White's performance was equally subdued, adding $44.3 million to its tally, resulting in a global opening of $87.3 million as reported by Comscore. This live-action adaptation of Disney's iconic 1937 animated film features Rachel Zegler as Snow White and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. With a hefty production budget of over $250 million, the film now faces a steep challenge to reach profitability, particularly when marketing expenses are factored in.

However, 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. Despite a modest domestic opening of $35.4 million, Mufasa went on to amass over $717 million worldwide. Disney is likely banking on a similar 'sleeper hit' success for Snow White, especially as questions linger about the performance of Captain America: Brave New World, which has accumulated $400.8 million globally after six weekends.

IGN's review of Snow White awarded it a 7/10, praising it for being a meaningful adaptation rather than a mere imitation of the original.