Disney‘s feature take on its classic 1937 toon Snow White finally is hitting theaters this weekend after weathering a tormenting, blown-out-of-proportion tabloid controversy. Domestic is looking to land between a $45M-$50M opening with another $55M abroad.
The reported $270M feature production came under fire on social for the casting an actress of Latina-Polish descent — Zegler — in the lead role. She pushed back against the criticism. She also makde some actress’ remarks about the original film and slammed Donald Trump and his supporters back in November. It’s believed that some of this sentiment is in the ether, which has pushed down ticket sales. It also led Disney to pare down its world premiere on Saturday, which excluded mainstream press from the carpet — despite the studio putting on a full extravaganza pre-party with food, free candy, afternoon appletinis, faux gem digging and Zegler taking selfies in the crowd.
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The marketplace is starving for a hit, and the spring break audience is available, with 25% K-12 schools off this Friday, per Comscore. After a short two-week window, presales are around $5M, we’re told, which is right behind Kung Fu Panda 4, which opened to $57.9M, and ahead of Dumbo‘s $45.99M — an opening many are fearing that Snow White will sink toward. If this movie overindexes, it will be with Latinos and families. Currently the pic is solid with girls 6-11 and teen girls 12-16 and the 17-34 demo. Good news is that Saturday and Sunday family business is looking up; it’s not just the Twilight teen-girl crowd going to see this Zegler-Gal Gadot movie. Rotten Tomatoes reviews haven’t hit yet.
Stateside, the pic is booked at 4,200 theaters with previews starting at 2 p.m. Thursday. Snow White starts offshore play Wednesday in France and Korea, notably, followed by Germany, Italy, Australia, Brazil and Mexico on Thursday and China on Friday. In comps, Cinderella bowed to $74M in 2015 (including $22M for China), while The Little Mermaid opened to $68M overseas in 2023.
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Disney has been here before: It came under fire with the casting of Halle Bailey in The Little Mermaid. That movie did perfectly fine stateside with a 3-day of $95.5M and domestic total of $298.1M, but didn’t overindex overseas, only repping 48% of a near $570M worldwide take. Other scenarios where Disney faced controversy and faced collateral damage at the box office include Solo: A Star Wars Story. The change in filmmakers months ahead of release from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller to old-guard Ron Howard didn’t sit well with fans and lingered all the way to opening weekend. In addition, Alden Ehrenreich isn’t a dead ringer for Harrison Ford.
Courtesy of RLJE Films & Shudder
Also opening this weekend is the Robert De Niro twin gangster movie, Alto Knights, which is eyeing single-digit millions aimed at older dudes at 2,500 theaters. Greelighted by David Zaslav and directed by Barry Levison, the R-rated movie starts showtimes at 3 p.m. Thursday. RLJE/Shudder’s Flying Lotus-directed sci-fi movie Ash, which stars Eiza González as an astronaut who wakes up to find her entire crew dead, also arrives this weekend. The movie also starring Aaron Paul world-premiered at SXSW followed by an L.A. premiere Monday night. It was greeted with applause in both instances. Ash, which was shot in New Zealand, is booked at 1,062 theaters and starts showtimes at 5 p.m. Wednesday.