Honestly, if you’ve been anywhere near a screen in the last few months, you already know the vibe. Toxic. That’s basically the only way to describe the lead-up to Disney’s live-action Snow White. Now that we’re sitting in early 2026, looking back at the 2025 release, the data is in. It isn't pretty.
The movie didn't just stumble. It sort of face-planted into a pile of expensive CGI.
With a production budget that spiraled toward $270 million—partly thanks to massive reshoots and strike delays—the film needed to be a Lion King-sized hit just to break even. Instead, it opened to a soft $43 million domestically in March 2025. For context, that’s less than half of what The Little Mermaid pulled in during its first weekend. If you’re wondering how is the new snow white movie doing financially, the short answer is: it’s officially a box-office bomb.
The Poisoned Apple: Why the Numbers Tanked
People love to argue about "woke" casting or political controversies, and yeah, that played a role. Rachel Zegler’s old interviews about the 1937 original being "dated" definitely didn't help the marketing. But experts like Daniel Loria from the Boxoffice Company point out that the issues were deeper.
The movie had a "counterfeit" quality. Audiences could tell it was a project struggling with its own identity.
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One minute it’s trying to be a gritty feminist reboot where Snow White is a "leader," and the next, it’s a whimsical musical with CGI dwarfs that looked... well, let's just say the "uncanny valley" was in full effect. By the time the film finished its theatrical run in mid-2025, it had only scraped together about $205.7 million worldwide. When you factor in the $100 million-plus marketing budget, Disney is looking at a loss north of $100 million.
A Rough Comparison
- Beauty and the Beast (2017): $174 million opening.
- Aladdin (2019): $91 million opening.
- Snow White (2025): $43 million opening.
The drop-off is staggering. Even Dumbo, which was considered a disappointment back in 2019, opened higher.
What the Critics (and Your Neighbors) Actually Thought
Reviews were a total mixed bag, leaning toward the "rotten" side. It currently sits with a 43% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Most critics actually praised Zegler’s voice—the girl can sing, there’s no denying that—but they hated the script. It felt disjointed. Gal Gadot’s Evil Queen was also a point of contention; some fans loved the campiness, while others felt it lacked the genuine menace of the animated version.
Interestingly, the audience score was higher, around 74%. This suggests that families who actually went to see it didn't hate it as much as the internet did. But "didn't hate it" doesn't sell enough tickets to justify a quarter-billion-dollar price tag.
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The "babysitter effect" never really kicked in. Usually, Disney movies have "legs"—they stay in theaters for months because parents need somewhere to take the kids. But with Lilo & Stitch releasing shortly after and becoming a massive billion-dollar hit, Snow White was basically evicted from the conversation within three weeks.
The "Rachel Zegler" Factor
You can't talk about how this movie is doing without mentioning the leads. The press tour was a mess. Because of the various controversies, the studio reportedly scaled back some of the traditional red-carpet press.
Zegler had to carry a lot of the weight alone.
Then you had the bizarre political tug-of-war. You had one camp boycotting because of Zegler’s views and another camp boycotting because of Gal Gadot’s. It was a marketing nightmare where the movie itself became secondary to the "culture war" surrounding it.
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Is There a Silver Lining on Disney+?
Disney released the film on streaming in June 2025, and it did see a massive 405% spike in viewership during its first five days. It was the #1 movie on Disney+ for a week or two. People were curious. They wanted to see if it was as bad as the memes suggested.
But even on streaming, the engagement dropped off fast. It’s currently sitting in the library alongside other "live-action experiments" that didn't quite land.
Actionable Insights for the Disney Fan (or Hater)
If you're still curious about the film or its impact on future Disney projects, here is what you need to know:
- Skip the theater experience: Unless you’re a die-hard completist, this is a "watch on a Sunday afternoon while doing laundry" kind of movie. The CGI dwarfs are less jarring on a small screen.
- Expect a shift in Disney’s strategy: Because of this flop, Disney has already paused or "indefinitely delayed" several other remakes, including Bambi and The Sword in the Stone. They’ve realized that nostalgia has a limit.
- Watch the originals instead: If you want the "magic," the 1937 version is still the gold standard. The 2025 version cuts signature songs like "I'm Wishing" and changes the ending so significantly that it feels like a different story entirely.
- Keep an eye on the "Special Editions": The Blu-ray release from late 2024 actually includes some deleted scenes that explain the "leader" subplot a bit better. If you’re a film nerd, those are worth a look just to see the "what could have been."
The reality is that Snow White was a project that took too long, cost too much, and tried to please too many people at once. In the end, it ended up pleasing almost no one. It serves as a loud reminder to Hollywood that even the most famous stories in the world aren't "un-floppable" if the heart of the story gets lost in the shuffle.