Live-action Snow White remake. The movie’s title is enough to send readers to their keyboards with an opinion. The movie hasn’t even been released yet and won’t be for another six months, but everyone seems to have an opinion on the film. The drastic changes the Walt Disney Company has made to the film have caused outrage among diehard Disney fans, and the casting has got the right-wing media up in arms.
But for Disney, the main focus is how much money they will make on this film. And with the release of some recent figures, it appears that this will be another in a long line of losers for Walt Disney Studios.
According to Forbes, for Disney to break even on the live-action Snow White, the film will have to gross around $340 million in worldwide box office. Forbes analyzed some recent figures released by Disney on the film to determine just how much the movie will need to gross. Most of the time, Disney is tight-lipped about how much a film costs, but because this movie was filmed in the United Kingdom, Disney had to release the figures to the government.
Disney’s Huge Tax Break
Because Disney shot most of the movie in the United Kingdom, it qualified for the British Government’s Film Tax Relief, which gives movie companies up to 25 percent of the film’s cost to film in London, provided that it represents at least 10 percent of the movie’s total cost.
This means that Disney had to release just how much the film cost them to receive reimbursement from the British government. In this case, Disney received $41.1 million back from the British government for filming after spending nearly $170 million filming in London.
‘Snow White’ Controversy
Almost right from the start, Snow White ran into controversy. Many Disney purists disagreed with the casting of Rachel Zegler as the lead. Zegler is a Latina actress who formerly starred in West Side Story (2022). But Zegler was having none of the criticism and clapped back at critics in interviews and on social media, which only made it worse.
The criticism of the movie only got worse this summer when a photo from the film leaked online showing that Disney decided to remove the dwarfs and replace them with seven “magical creatures.” Disney was accused of having “gone woke” yet again, and anger even came from actors with dwarfism who wanted the work.
With the online criticism combined. With the SAG-AFTRA strike, rumors began to spread online that Disney was considering canceling the movie entirely. However, Disney has made no official comment yet.
The Movie
Critics and fans alike have already made assumptions about Snow White, and it doesn’t even come out for another six months. Critics jumped on Rachel Zegler when she said this would be a “different kind of movie.” Zegler said, “Snow White is not going to be saved by the prince, and she’s not going to be dreaming about true love.”
The live-action remake includes Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen and Ansu Kabia as the Huntsman. There is an all-new character who does not appear in the Brothers Grimm fairytale, Jonathan, played by American actor Andrew Burnap.
Audiences will have to wait until March 2024 for the remake of the Disney classic, but it appears the damage has already been done to this movie. There are those Disney fans who are clinging to the original fairy tale and just want Walt Disney’s original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
But for Disney to break even, this new version must come close to The Little Mermaid (2023), which seems unlikely given the controversy.
But you never know; Disney may once again surprise moviegoers and audiences alike with another hit.
We will continue to update this story at Disney Fanatic.
It has got to make much more than twice what it cost to make to turn a profit. The figures do not include what it costs to do trailers, promotion, and distribution (the theaters take a cut) which could run another 100 million. This abomination will be lucky to bring in half of what it cost to get it to the public.