Disney’s Snow White Remake May Face Uphill Battle to Break Even After Sleepy Start at the Box Office

Snow White, directed by Marc Webb of The Amazing Spider-Man fame, experienced a challenging opening weekend at the box office, pulling in a domestic total of $43 million. This figure marks one of the lowest opening weekends for any Disney live-action remake to date. According to Comscore, this debut was enough to secure the top spot on the week's chart and rank as the second highest domestic opening of 2025, trailing only behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Captain America: Brave New World. However, it fell short of the $45 million opening achieved by the live-action Dumbo in 2019 and did not meet pre-release estimates.

For comparison, other Disney remakes have seen significantly stronger starts. The Lion King (2019), Beauty and the Beast (2017), The Jungle Book (2016), and The Little Mermaid (2023) all surpassed the $100 million mark in their domestic opening weekends.

Internationally, Snow White's performance was similarly subdued, with an opening weekend haul of $44.3 million. This brings the film's global box office total to $87.3 million, as reported by Comscore.

Snow White is a live-action adaptation of Disney's iconic 1937 animated film, featuring Rachel Zegler as the titular character and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. With a reported production budget exceeding $250 million, the film faces a steep challenge to break even, particularly when factoring in marketing expenses.

Despite the initial underwhelming performance, there is potential 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 ultimately grossed over $717 million worldwide. Disney is likely hoping for a similar 'sleeper hit' success with 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 domestic markets and $208.7 million from international markets.

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.