‘Snow White’ is tanking at the box office — but Disney may get the last laugh
“Snow White” looks like a bad (or poisoned) apple for Disney. But looks can be deceiving.
After a less-than-storybook start, the controversy-plagued remake of Disney’s first princess movie stumbled in its second weekend. Subpar reviews and political backlash weighed on “Snow White,” which pulled in a paltry $14 million, a third of its domestic opening. With $143 million in global sales, the $270 million film (not counting its marketing budget) faces a steep road to profitability.
Fortunately for Disney, box-office analysts noted that ticket sales are only part of the picture.
Although “Snow White” will almost certainly lose money in theaters, that doesn’t mean it will be unprofitable, David A. Gross of movie consultancy FranchiseRe told Business Insider.
“After it finishes selling digital copies, then renting on video-on-demand (PVOD), then streaming on Disney+, then playing on Hulu, then playing on ABC, plus selling merchandise and attracting patrons at the theme parks, it will recover its costs and be profitable,” Gross said.
Streaming can give ‘Snow White’ a fairytale ending
All of the controversy surrounding “Snow White” may be the movie’s secret weapon.
Disney’s creative decisions, like casting a non-white actor as Snow White and using CGI dwarves, caught criticism and further fueled the long-standing narrative that the Hollywood giant is “woke.” Appearing “agenda-driven” is a major issue CEO Bob Iger has said he wants to avoid.
“It just became this political story and cultural maelstrom surrounding this movie,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a box-office analyst at Comscore, in a recent interview. “And that’s never really a good thing for a family film, for a PG-rated Disney movie.”
But what were land mines at the theater could be gold mines for streaming.
“Movies that get a lot of chatter — a lot of buzz, positive or negative — around them, do really well once they hit streaming,” Dergarabedian said.
He said many Disney+ subscribers may think: “Wow, I didn’t go see that movie in the theater, but I’m curious about it.”
While a big-budget streaming hit might not have been Disney’s primary goal with “Snow White,” Gross said Netflix and Amazon seem to be fine with shelling out nine-figure sums for movies like “The Electric State” and “Red One.” Those streamers have proven you don’t need a theatrical run to see a solid return.
“What does that make ‘Snow White’ worth on Disney+?” Gross said.
Curiously, “Snow White” was unseated in its second week by the action flick “A Working Man,” which had a rather small $40 million budget. However, the Jason Statham movie won’t be watched on repeat for years by kids, or used to sell Halloween costumes or dolls.
Audiences may be trying to signal that they prefer originality over Disney’s seemingly endless run of sequels and remakes.
But even if “Snow White” is a creative miss that appears to be a financial flop, it might pay off anyway. So don’t expect Disney to pivot away from remaking movies like “Moana” anytime soon.
“Thankfully, they do have streaming and merchandising,” Dergarabedian said. “Disney’s going to have to rely on all that stuff, all those other ancillary opportunities revenue-wise.”
