Disney’s 2025 remake of Snow White turned out to be an even bigger financial disaster for the century-old studio that once defined family entertainment than first reported. After years of controversy, weak marketing, and public backlash, the film has now been confirmed as one of the company’s biggest box office failures in decades.
According to a detailed analysis from Forbes, Disney spent roughly $336.5 million producing the modern live-action version of its 1937 animated classic. Because the movie was filmed in the United Kingdom, financial filings made through the British government’s tax credit program revealed the real numbers. After receiving a $64.9 million credit from that system, the total cost still landed around $271.6 million. The studio then had to share nearly half of its ticket revenue with theaters, leaving it deep in the red.
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Final estimates show the company lost about $168.7 million on Snow White. That figure doesn’t even include marketing expenses or later costs for digital and physical distribution. Could anyone at Disney really have believed this project would turn around the company’s recent streak of box office disasters?
Many observers say the movie was doomed before it ever reached theaters. Star Rachel Zegler took aim at the original film, calling it “sexist” and outdated in a series of widely circulated interviews. Her comments turned off much of Disney’s traditional audience and fueled a wave of criticism online. The early trailers were also crushed with negative ratings on YouTube, driven by complaints about the eerie computer-generated dwarfs and a storyline that seemed to reject everything fans loved about the original.
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The backlash led to rewrites, reshoots, and even more spending for a film already hemorrhaging money. When Snow White finally premiered, its opening weekend brought in only $87.3 million—well below expectations and among the lowest returns for any of Disney’s live-action remakes. The response was swift: audiences simply didn’t connect with the message or the tone of the film.
While Disney may hope to recover a small portion of the loss through streaming, rentals, or merchandise, those sales come with new expenses. Few in Hollywood expect the final numbers to improve much, leaving Snow White as a painful symbol of what happens when politics and lectures replace storytelling.
For a studio already struggling with declining attendance, massive layoffs, and public frustration over its content choices, the failure of Snow White raises a serious question. How did Disney forget what made its classics beloved in the first place?
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English (US) · 