After facing years of debate and disappointing ticket sales, Disney’s live-action Snow White remake, set for 2025, appears to have lost around $170 million.
The film, which had a staggering production cost of $336.5 million, yielded low returns following various controversies. Recent filings have shed light on this, revealing that the film was shot in England. The UK has specific laws that offer considerable financial advantages for film productions, although these come with strict guidelines. This prompted Disney to establish a subsidiary, Hidden Heart Productions, for filming there. The financial details were largely kept confidential; however, local regulations in the UK allowed for this information to surface.
Reportedly, as of July 31, 2022, Disney had already spent an astonishing $183.3 million on Snow White, even before the main filming had concluded. This insight was shared in Britain’s Daily Mail. The latest financial disclosure covers the year ending December 31, 2024, offering a clearer view of the overall expenses.
The total spent on Snow White exceeds that of several other major Disney films, including Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and is notably higher than the live-action Beauty and the Beast, which remarkably grossed $1.3 billion in 2017.
Although the British government provided compensation for the production costs amounting to $64.9 million (£52.3 million), the remaining expenses of $271.6 million still left the film unable to find success in theaters.
Further complicating financial matters were the costs associated with getting the film released. Industry standards indicate that theaters typically retain about 49% of box office revenue. Due to this, Disney ultimately made just $102.9 million from Snow White, leading to a significant loss of $168.7 million when considered against the net production costs.
In terms of finances, it might be one of the largest box office failures in cinema history.
Yet, the film’s challenges aren’t just rooted in finances; it has stirred considerable cultural debate as well. In 2022, actor Peter Dinklage criticized Disney for remaking “a very backwards story about seven dwarfs living together in a cave,” despite being accepting of the casting choice of Rachel Zegler as the lead. In response to the backlash, Disney allegedly planned to swap out the dwarfs for racially diverse, mixed-gender “magical creatures,” although this idea was ultimately abandoned in favor of CGI dwarfs akin to those in the animated original.
Zegler herself sparked additional controversy by making negative remarks about the original 1937 film, as well as comments about Israel and various political figures, including a notable outburst against Donald Trump on social media.
Disney has yet to address any of the controversies publicly.
