How Much Does Disney’s ‘Snow White’ Need To Gross To Break Even?

According to an old adage, no news is good news and media giant Disney is all too aware of this right now. Its live action remake of Snow White has barely been out of the headlines since it debuted just over a week ago but has only just limped across the $100 million mark.

For a film based on one of the most famous fantasy stories of all time, the production of Snow White has been anything but a fairytale.

Filming was delayed by two years due to the pandemic and no sooner had the cameras started rolling in 2022 than the movie’s leading lady Rachel Zegler slammed the story in the 1937 animated classic.

She likened the hero Prince Charming’s behaviour to that of a “stalker” and described the movie as “extremely dated when it comes to the ideas of women being in roles of power”. It disenchanted critics including David Hand, whose father worked on the original cartoon which won Walt Disney an honorary Oscar. Hand said that the duo “would be turning in their graves” as it was made “with good taste.”

The criticism intensified in August last year when Snow White’s computer-generated dwarf companions debuted in the first trailer for the movie and were described by critics as being creepy copies of the cute and cuddly characters in the original cartoon. It led to the trailer becoming YouTube’s most disliked film teaser with nearly a million dislikes compared to more than 68,000 likes.

Even more dark clouds gathered when Zegler took to social media to thank fans for watching the trailer and added “always remember, free palestine.” The comment eventually came to the attention of the film’s producer Marc Platt and, according to Variety, he flew to New York in a bid to get Zegler to take the post down but she refused which is why it remains online to this day.

Zegler didn’t stop there as she launched a expletive-laden tirade against MAGA supporters and President Trump following his election in November. Wary of the impact on his production, Platt reportedly tried again to get Zegler to keep the peace but it was too late.

The film failed to cast a spell on audiences with total takings of $87.3 million in its opening weekend, 13% less than forecast. It was clearly a sore point with Platt’s son, the actor Jonah Platt, who reacted angrily to an Instagram comment chastising his father for trying to keep Zegler’s political views out of the promotion for the film.

“My dad, the producer of enormous piece of Disney IP with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, had to leave his family to fly across the country to reprimand his 20 year old employee for dragging her personal politics into the middle of promoting the movie for which she signed a multi-million dollar contract to get paid and do publicity for,” wrote Platt in a post which was seen by The Hollywood Reporter before it was deleted.

“This is called adult responsibility and accountability. And her actions clearly hurt the film’s box office,” added Platt. “Free speech does not mean you’re allowed to say whatever you want in your private employment without repercussions. Tens of thousands of people worked on that film and she hijacked the conversation for her own immature desires at the risk of all the colleagues and crew and blue collar workers who depend on that movie to be successful. Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged.”

According to Deadline, Snow White’s box office is set to fall 68% in its second weekend with just $13.7 million in takings which would see it finishing second to Jason Statham’s new action thriller A Working Man.

It has sparked fierce debate about whether Disney will make its money back on the movie in theaters though, as is often the case with the murky subject of Hollywood film finances, the answer has been shrouded in speculation. Until now.

In order to establish how much a movie needs to gross to break even it is first necessary to know how much it cost to make and the trail usually ends there. That’s because the budgets of movies made in the United States are closely-guarded secrets. Studios tend to combine the costs of all of their productions in their overall expenses and don’t itemize how much they spent on each one. Movies made in the United Kingdom are exceptions to this and Snow White was one of them.

Studios filming there get a reimbursement of up to 25.5% of their costs provided that they spend at least 10% of the total in the U.K. In order to demonstrate this to the U.K. authorities, studios set up separate companies for each movie they make there and they are obliged to file detailed financial statements which lift the curtain on everything from staff salaries and social security payments to the total costs of the movie and the level of reimbursement they received.

The Disney subsidiary behind Snow White is called Hidden Heart Productions in a nod to the shape of the latch on the Evil Queen’s jewellery box in the animated original. The financial statements are filed in stages which starts during pre-production and goes on long after the premiere to give the company time to ensure it has collected all of its bills and received the money for them.

In 2023 this author revealed in Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper that by July 31, 2022 Disney had already spent a staggering $183.3 million on making Snow White even though principal photography had only just wrapped.

The latest set of filings show that by December 31, 2023 that total had risen to $269.4 million (£217.7 million) forcing Disney to admit in its filings that the film “was forecasted to be over the production budget.” Reshoots and post-production work have taken place since then so the costs are set to increase though the bulk of the money has been spent.

It brings the total cost to around $300 million which is almost precisely in line with the estimate from expert film industry pundit Valliant Renegade who assessed back in September 2023 that “Disney’s Snow White remake cost $300m.”

Disney got a magic touch from the UK government’s fiscal incentives scheme as this led to it banking a $55.5 million (£44.9 million) reimbursement bringing its net spending on Snow White down to $213.9 million. Disney declined to provide comment for this article but there is no doubt that the data is accurate as it comes directly from the audited filings for its production company which made the movie.

The $213.9 million doesn’t include marketing costs as they are spent by the studio rather than the production company. However, it also doesn’t include revenue from merchandise or corporate alliances as they are received by the studio.

The $213.9 million is the production cost of the movie and it needs to make at least that much for Disney in order to break even at the box office.

The share of the box office that theaters pay to studios is known in the trade as a rental fee and an indication of the typical level comes from film industry consultant Stephen Follows who interviewed 1,235 film professionals in 2014 and concluded that, according to studios, theaters keep 49% of the takings on average.

Assuming an approximate 50-50 split means that Snow White needs to gross at least $427.8 million for Disney to cover its costs at the box office. According to Box Office Mojo, Snow White has so far grossed just $100.2 million globally so Disney is still a long way from a happy ending.

In line with the old adage, the controversy surrounding the movie doesn’t appear to have helped though there may be a more fundamental problem. Snow White has a critics score of just 41% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes suggesting that the caliber of the film is the driving force behind its poor performance. Its audience score is far higher at 73% which is surprising as it is easier for this metric to be skewed by popular negative sentiment. In contrast, critics are employed by media outlets to supposedly assess a picture independently on its merits.

Snow White’s struggle to appeal to critics highlights a Catch 22 of remaking animated classics. Creating a carbon copy of the original could attract criticism for being lazy and superfluous whereas straying too far from the source material could alienate fans. This shows the level of risk attached to these productions and this is magnified when there is a blockbuster budget on the line.

Nevertheless, it hasn’t held Disney back and just nine days before Snow White debuted, the studio released the first trailer for its next remake – a live action version of 2002’s beloved Lilo & Stitch. This time the trailer was much better received so Disney doubled down on it by releasing an extended clip during its recent Annual General Meeting. The movie debuts on May 23 and if its profits compensate for Snow White’s loss then Disney may get its happy ending after all.