Disney’s live-action Snow White remake is set to lose the studio a staggering $115 million (£89 million) after the film failed to impress at the box office amid ‘woke’ controversies.
The film, starring Rachel Zegler as Snow White and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, is falling drastically short of matching its mammoth $270 million (£208 million) production costs.
Factoring in a $111 million (£85.9 million) global advertising campaign and other expenses, Disney has shelled out an unbelievable $410 million (£317.3 million) on the project.
The takings will, therefore, be grim reading for Disney bosses, as the film is projected to just scrape $100 million in the US (£77.4 million) and $125 million (£95.98 million) overseas, per Deadline.
Snow White is projected to lose $115 million
Disney
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In the US, Snow White saw a steep 66 percent drop off in footfall by its second week in cinemas.
The film has also fallen short of Disney's last disappointing live action offering in 2019’s Dumbo and is dwarfed by The Lion King’s huge $1.657 billion take from the same year.
Another recent Disney project, Mufasa: The Lion King, opened at a lowly $35 million but eventually soared to over $700 million worldwide.
Combined revenues from streaming on Disney+, global film rentals, physical copy sales, and merchandising is estimated to bring the grand total take to around the $295 million mark.
The film stars Rachel Zegler as the titular princess and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen
Getty
Against the $410 million expenditure, this leaves the entertainment giant with a nine-figure hole in its finances.
The film also failed to impress critics, scoring a poor 40 percent rating on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.
Snow White has also been blighted with multiple controversies, beginning with the casting of Zegler as the titular princess.
The 23-year-old actress did little to help herself when she slammed the original 1937 adaption as "dated" and declared the remake would not feature a princess "dreaming about true love" or being "saved by the prince".
Zegler, who is of Colombian descent, further courted controversy by slamming having to “prove her identity” to a “bunch of white executives” amid questions about her choice for the role.
The film was further branded 'woke' after it emerged the seven dwarves would be reimagined as “magical creatures” - following pressure from actor Peter Dinklage that the original conceit was “backwards”.
Replace the dwarves with CGI-stoked outrage as some claimed it was ultimately denying work to actors with dwarfism.
Further discourse was generated as tensions over the Isreal-Hamas conflict between Zegler, who has been outspoken on the issue, and Israeli actress Gadot were reported.
These controversies led Disney to scale back the film's premiere and press access.
During production, Snow White was also beset with issues, including a reported fire while filming in the UK, delays and reshoots.
