Snow White, the latest live-action adaptation from Disney, experienced a challenging start at the box office over its opening weekend. Directed by Marc Webb, known for his work on The Amazing Spider-Man films, the movie grossed $43 million domestically. While this figure was enough to secure the top spot in the domestic box office charts for the week and mark the second highest opening of 2025 behind the MCU's Captain America: Brave New World, it fell short of expectations and previous Disney remakes.
For comparison, other Disney remakes like 2019's The Lion King, 2017's Beauty and the Beast, 2016's The Jungle Book, and 2023's The Little Mermaid all debuted with over $100 million domestically during their opening weekends. Even the 2019 live-action Dumbo opened with a slightly higher $45 million.
Internationally, Snow White's performance was similarly subdued, adding $44.3 million to its global tally, bringing the total to $87.3 million according to Comscore estimates. This start is particularly concerning given the film's reported production budget exceeding $250 million, not including marketing expenses, which places it in a difficult position to achieve profitability.
Starring Rachel Zegler as Snow White and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, the film is a reimagining of Disney's iconic 1937 animated classic. Despite its slow start, there's hope that Snow White might follow in the footsteps of Mufasa: The Lion King, another Disney prequel that opened to a modest $35.4 million but eventually amassed over $717 million worldwide.
Disney remains optimistic about Snow White's potential to become a sleeper hit, especially amid ongoing discussions about the performance of Captain America: Brave New World, which has now earned $400.8 million globally after six weekends.
IGN's review of Snow White awarded it a 7/10, praising it as a meaningful adaptation that successfully diverges from mere replication of the original.
