Snow White Box Office Collection Day 3: Rachel Zegler-Gal Gadot’s Disney classic remake sees modest opening weekend

Snow White Box Office Collection Day 3: In India, Snow White, the Walt Disney Co.’s modern-day remake of the 1937 animated classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, opened to modest weekend earnings amid mixed reviews and a blizzard of negative publicity.

Snow White Box Office Collection Day 3

Snow White (3D) has recorded a steady rise in its earnings in India over the weekend. According to film industry tracker Sacnilk, the live-action film earned ₹1.33 crore on Sunday, March 23 for all languages. On Saturday, the movie earned ₹1.19 crore, while it opened with a meagre ₹65 lakh on Friday.

According to Sacnilk, the Disney remake's total earnings in India now stand at ₹3.17 crore.

Snow White Box Office Collection Day 3: Hollywood

Made with a budget above $250 million ( ₹2,149 crore), Snow White, featuring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, missed box-office forecasts in the US and Canada, delivering ticket sales of $43 million.

The industry tracker Box Office Pro had predicted at least $45 million and up to $55 million — an already low range for a major theatrical production. Globally, the movie’s ticket sales were $87 million.

In Hollywood, Snow White opened worse than Dumbo (a $46 million opening in 2019) and well shy of Cinderella territory ($67.9 million in 2015).

Snow White: Controversies

The live-action musical Snow White was hampered by a number of controversies that may have cost the company at the box office.

Some online detractors didn’t think Zegler, an American actress with Colombian heritage, should be cast as Snow White.

Zegler also fanned controversy with political comments about President Donald Trump and the Israeli-Palestinian war. Disney’s reimagining of the dwarfs as computer-generated, magical beings added to the heat.

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.

The company made the remake a tale of female empowerment. Instead of trying to find a husband, the new Snow White leads a Joan of Arc-like rebellion against the Evil Queen, played by Gal Gadot.

She was named not for her complexion, but for the snow storm her family endured the day she was born. Her love interest is one of the rebels, not a prince.

Some right-wing commentators targeted Snow White and Zegler's casting as an overly “woke” production. Delays and reshoots also ran up costs.

(With agency inputs)