Disney’s live-action remake of Snow White And The Seven Dwarves has topped the North American box office chart, despite a controversy-packed run-up to the film’s release.
Based on the 1937 classic that established Disney’s name as an industry leader, Snow White took an estimated $43m (£33.1) domestically, and $87.3m (£67.3) worldwide according to Box Office Mojo.
For comparison, Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King, which came to cinemas in December, took $35m domestically (£27m). It’s now gone on to take over $700m (£540m) globally.
Meanwhile, Disney’s 2019 live-action Dumbo, directed by Tim Burton, took $45m (£35m) domestically in its opening weekend. It has since taken over $350m (£270m) worldwide.
Snow White hasn’t performed well in China, only making it to seventh place in the Chinese box office charts and grossing less than $1m (£770,000) over its opening, according to EntGroup’s China Box Office website.
Reviews for the movie have been mixed, with The Guardian calling it an “exhaustingly awful reboot” and The Observer similarly judging it to be “toe-curlingly terrible”.
The Independent wasn’t a fan of the “uncanny CGI caricatures” which it said were reminiscent of 2004 movie The Polar Express, a sentiment echoed by Empire which called the reimagined dwarves an “unholy VFX disaster”.
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The Daily Mail called it “painfully muddle-headed”, but gave Zegler the thumbs up, highlighting her “oodles of talent”, while The New York Post said it was “mediocre” and unmemorable.
Some US outlets have given a more favourable critique, with Variety calling it “one of the better live-action adaptations of a Disney animated feature,” and The Hollywood Reporter judging it “mostly captivating”.
Reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the movie a 44% critic score – which translates to “rotten” – however the audience score on the site’s “Popcornometer” is currently at 74%, rating it “fresh”.
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Dubbed ‘woke’ and plagued with speculation
The movie had a muted marketing campaign, with no UK premiere and reduced US press opportunities.
Costing around $250m to make, the film had been flagged as a potential tent-pole movie (a film that is expected to be very successful and support a range of merchandise or spin-off opportunities) for Disney early on.
But aspirations faded as it approached release as it was hit by controversy after controversy.
Early on, Snow White was labelled “woke” due to its casting of Latina actress Rachel Zegler, who is of Colombian-Polish descent, in the lead role.
Zegler also faced a backlash after suggesting the early version of the film had content that was unsuitable for the 21st century – namely the fact the prince “literally stalks” Snow White.
There was then speculation as to whether Zegler got on with Israeli actress Gal Gadot, who plays the evil queen, as they have previously expressed very different views over the Israel-Hamas war.
The use of CGI to create the seven dwarf characters, thus replacing the potential for little people to take up the roles, has left disability activists to accuse the movie of “erasing” them from the narrative.
Ahead of the film’s release, comedian, model and content creator Fats Timbo told Sky News she believed Disney missed a golden opportunity to educate children during what was likely to be their first encounter with someone with dwarfism.
Snow White is in cinemas now.
