By Janet H. Cho

Walt Disney's Snow White won the top spot at the weekend box office, opening with an estimated $43 million in domestic ticket sales through Sunday, according to studio estimates.

The PG-rated live-action remake debuted in 4,200 theaters and sold an average of $10,238 in tickets per theater, but the studio and movie theaters may have been hoping for closer to $100 million, along the lines of last month's Captain America: Brave New World.

Snow White generated another $44.3 million internationally, for estimated weekend global debut of $87.3 million.

Ticket sales may have been dinged by controversies including criticism of Disney changing the seven dwarfs in Disney's 1937 original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs into a diverse group of magical creatures, taking out the song "Some Day My Prince Will Come," and casting Rachel Zegler, whose parents are of Colombian and Polish heritage, as Snow White.

Disney has said it wanted to "avoid reinforcing stereotypes" from the original film. Zegler defended the changes, telling Variety that "She's not going to be saved by the prince and she's not going to be dreaming about true love," and in another interview called the original version "weird." On Sunday, she posted an Instagram sporting a bobbed hairstyle and red bow, saying: "Just had to pay homage to the original Snow White, Miss Adriana Caselotti. "To whom i owe everything. [heart emoji]"

Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian told Barron's that it's difficult to assess the impact of controversy on a movie's box office performance, and although the well-publicized controversies swirling around Snow White raised the film's profile, "this is a less-than-ideal situation."

"Studios want to have control over the marketing message and avoid anything negative that may impede a perfect path to opening weekend," he said. Many of those in the target audience of children and families likely just wanted to see a PG-rated film this weekend, and were perhaps unaware of the controversies. "The result, while softer than expected, is a number one debut for the film."

Still, Hollywood's box office's $77 million take this weekend and $1.34 billion revenue year-to-date is 7% lower than this time last year, according to Comscore. Warner Bros.' Alto Knights, an R-rated crime drama starring Robert De Niro, opened with $3.2 million in domestic box office and another $1.9 million internationally for a $5.1 million global debut.

The original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney's first animated feature film, was so successful it paid for the company's Burbank studio lot. The remake, written by Barbie director Greta Gerwig and directed by Marc Webb of The Amazing Spider-Man, cost more than $250 million.

Snow White received a "B+" from CinemaScore and a 43% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Other films with underwhelming debuts went on to generate big sales. Reviews of The Lion King in 2019 weren't great, but the film has grossed more than $1.6 billion globally, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.

Mufasa: The Lion King went from a $35.4 million opening weekend in December to gross nearly $718 million worldwide.

Disney is planning live-action remakes of Moana and Tangled, and will release a live-action Lilo & Stitch on May 23.

Write to Janet H. Cho at janet.cho@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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March 23, 2025 16:51 ET (20:51 GMT)

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