Controversy has surrounded the Snow White remake since Disney delayed the movie to a 2025 release date. To avoid becoming a box office bomb, Snow White needs to break even at $340 million.
Breaking even at the box office means that the movie has to earn double its production budget. According to Forbes, this number would need to be at least $340 million to qualify as a box office success. Financial statements from Forbes said that Walt Disney Studios spent $209.3 million producing Snow White. The huge costs could have come from the COVID-19 pandemic that delayed production. Film production was originally going to begin in March 2020. Filming didn’t start until two years later in the UK in March 2022.
The financial statements also said that the film earned $41.1 million in reimbursement cash due to the UK’s Film Tax Relief initiative. This would bring the production costs of the Marc Webb-directed movie to $168.2 million, which doesn’t seem to count post-production costs. The box office would have to make at least $336.4 million to balance out the costs.
What Could Be Stopping the Snow White Remake From Breaking Even?
Original reports say the delay of Snow White was from the SAG-AFTRA Strike. ComicBookMovie reported that an insider alleges the delay came from financial safety reasons to ensure it doesn’t flop. Otherwise, a financial disaster can mean future remakes and potential Snow White sequels could cease to exist. So, it looks like Disney is aware of the odds that Snow White could flop.
The backlash for Snow White first started when casting announcements revealed Rachel Zegler was the lead. Fans weren’t happy to hear a Latina actress was embodying the role compared to a Caucasian actress. It was also controversial when the West Side Story actress said Snow White won’t be “saved by a prince,” taking feminist strides away from the original. David Hand, whose father co-directed the 1937 movie, found the unreleased remake “insulting” and that he and Walt Disney would be “turning in their graves.”
And that’s not all. Set photos revealed that the Seven Dwarves would only have one actor with dwarfism, with the rest being non-dwarf actors. Disney said the photos showed stand-in adults substituting for the leads. A first-look photo shows Snow White surrounded by the Seven Dwarves in CGI form to make them look like the characters of the 1937 film.
There were also rumors that Rachel Zegler was fired from the movie due to a cryptic post saying, “Paddington 3 wraps filming in two weeks and Rachel Zegler was recast due to strikes.” Her role as Snow White was safe from the SAG-AFTRA strike. Instead, it was Zegler exiting Paddington 3 due to standing in solidarity with the strike participants.
