'Snow White' Opens with Sleepy $43 Million at Box Office

The Walt Disney Co.’s live-action, controversy-bedeviled “Snow White” opened in theaters with a sleepy $43 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
With a budget above $250 million, “Snow White” had set out with higher ambitions, particularly since it returns Disney to its very origins. The 1937 original “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was the company’s first animated feature, and paid for its Burbank studio lot.
But this “Snow White” struggled to find anything like a fairy tale ending. The runup to release was plagued by controversies over the film’s handling of the dwarfs, who are rendered in CGI, and backlashes over comments by its star, Rachel Zegler. The PR headaches prompted Disney to pull back on its premiere.
Also working against the film, directed by Marc Webb: poor reviews. Critics were largely not impressed with Disney’s latest live-action remake, with reviews coming in just 43% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes.
There’s been a wide variance between the box-office performance of other “live-action” Disney remakes, but “Snow White” might mark a new nadir. Jon Favreau’s photorealistic “The Lion King” (2019) didn’t have great reviews, either, but grossed more than $1.6 billion worldwide. “Snow White” opened worse than “Dumbo” (a $46 million opening in 2019) and well shy of “Cinderella” territory ($67.9 million in 2015).
Overseas, “Snow White” added $44.3 million for a global launch of $87.3 million. But going into the weekend, “Snow White” had been eyeing a worldwide total closer to $100 million – and a few weeks back, expectations were significantly higher.
The result will surely add to questions over Disney’s long-term strategy of mining its vault for live-action remakes. In the pipeline are upcoming new versions of “Moana" and “Tangled." A live-action “Lilo & Stitch” launches in May, The Associated Press reported.
Efforts to modernize “Snow White," though, quickly ran afoul. In 2022, actor Peter Dinklage criticized the remake plans as “backward.” Disney ultimately opted to drop “and the Seven Dwarfs” from the original's title, and animate the dwarfs. Some right-wing commentators targeted “Snow White” and Zegler's casting as an overly “woke” production. Delays and reshoots also ran up costs.
Disney, though, has recently steered a handful of films from modest starts to enviable final hauls. The Barry Jenkins-directed “Mufasa: The Lion King” opened with $35.4 million domestically, but ultimately surpassed $717 million worldwide. “Snow White” will face little direct competition in the coming weeks. Audiences gave it a “B+” CinemaScore.
Warner Bros.’ “Alto Knights,” a period gangster film starring Robert De Niro in both lead roles, was a total misfire. The Barry Levinson-directed film, which cost about $45 million to make, opened with just $3.2 million from 2,651 theaters. The flop of “Alto Knights” followed another misfire for Warner Bros. with Bong Joon Ho’s big-budget sci-fi “Mickey 17.” In three weeks, it’s tallied $40.2 million domestically against a $118 million budget.
“Magazine Dreams,” starring Jonathan Majors as a disturbed aspiring bodybuilder, opened with $700,000 for Briarcliff Entertainment in 815 locations. The film was dropped by Searchlight Pictures after Majors was convicted of two misdemeanor counts of assault and harassment against Grace Jabbari, his ex-girlfriend. Majors avoided jail time but was given a year of probation.
The disappointment-filled weekend added to a rough 2025 so far for Hollywood. The box office is down 6.9% from last year, according to data firm Comscore, and 38.6% from 2019.

Oscar voters will be required to demonstrate that they have watched all the films in each category before they cast their final ballots, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday.

The new rule, which addresses a longstanding concern that voters are skipping some films, will apply for the next Oscars ceremony in March 2026, the Academy said in a statement.

The Academy previously operated under an honor system that voters would see every Oscar-nominated film before casting their ballots.

However, with the number of nominees growing in recent years, some voters have admitted not fully fulfilling that duty.

Under the new system, Academy members will be tracked on the organization's voters-only streaming platform to make sure they have watched each film.

For movies seen elsewhere, such as in cinemas or at festival screenings, voters will be required to "fill out a form" vouching for when and where it was watched, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

For the Best Picture category alone, which has 10 nominated films, competing studios traditionally host glitzy events to woo voters during their awards campaigns, with parties, screenings and festival showings, sometimes followed by Q&A sessions with the stars and filmmakers.

The Academy also weighed in on a controversy that arose during the last voting season, which was marred by questions about the use of artificial intelligence in movies, such as "The Brutalist" and "Emilia Perez."

In guidance issued Monday, the Academy said AI and other digital tools will "neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination."

The new rule clarifies that the use of technology is not disqualifying.

"The Academy and each branch will judge the achievement, taking into account the degree to which a human was at the heart of the creative authorship when choosing which movie to award."

'Snow White' Opens with Sleepy $43 Million at Box Office