Whether you have seen the latest Disney faceplant, Snow White, or not, executives have taken notice. The recent string of bombs in trying to bring to life their animated movies seems to have set in.
A reported $273 Million budget to produce, the total global box office numbers came in at under $150 Million. Anyone not familiar with the basic box office rule of thumb, anything less than stone-cold double the budget is a flat out flop. So basically Disney was REQUIRING $550 Million+ to breathe a sigh of relief. They made around 1/4th of that.
While it’s not surprising, as almost universally all of the Disney live-action remakes have been jeered. Some by critics, some by movie-goers. Sometimes both. Snow White would be an example of the latter.
I personally haven’t, and have no desire to see it, so I can’t comment on if it was any good. The box office gave it away.
Casting Issues
The first big issue came about due to the casting itself. Many people were not happy with the Snow White star Rachel Zegler’s selection. Many felt she just wasn’t right to play the fairy tale character.
To add fuel onto the fire, Zegler’s own comments coming out against the original were not taken well. It purportedly caused heavy tensions on the set, and surely affected the performances.
Lastly, the choice by filmmakers to make the 7 dwarves CGI. Many voices in the little people community have cried foul by not utilizing talented ‘little people’ actors. It was taken as a heavily discriminatory offense, that the characters were made out of poorly crafted cartoon figures. It’s not as if this were supposed to be a live action movie….right?
Overall, the movie’s missteps have led to catastrophically bad reviews, and dismal returns.
Once, A Great Idea
It seems to be a final downturn for live action remakes. While I personally haven’t liked a single 1 I have seen, there were a few successful attempts. The current trend began back in 2010 with Alice in Wonderland. That made over $1 Billion from it’s $200 Million budget, so Disney rightfully assumed they could continue churning out their recycled goods.
Maleficent brought in a tidy $750 million, and was even nominated at the Oscars for costume design. Off of around $180 Million budget, not too shabby.
The meter began to fall slightly for 2015’s Cinderella, bringing in over $500 Million. For having a $95 Million budget, 5x return is still very good.
But then 2016’s The Jungle book swung right back around throwing just under $1 Billion back onto the table. That’s from a $175 Million budget, so nearly the same % as Cinderella.
2017’s Beauty and the Beast turned $160 Million budget into over $1.2 Billion. 6x their money, the 2010’s was coming up all Disney’s way.
While I personally detested the 2019 remake of Aladdin, it managed to scrape a Billion dollars itself, so Disney would throw that in the win column. With $183 Million cost, I can’t argue with the 5x profit again.
2019’s Maleficent: Mistress of Evil has the distinction of being the only Disney live-action remake sequel to succeed. Making just under $500 Million against it’s $185 Million cost. Such a paltry almost triple cost…
And rounding out the list as the biggest box office draw of all Disney live-action remakes was 2019’s The Lion King. Nearly $1.7 Billion, against a tidy budget of $260 Million. Over 6x their money, can’t go wrong.
Now, A Bad Choice
The main problem is the loss column keeps piling up. Immediately after the amazingly profitable Alice in Wonderland, 2010 saw The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. I am told that this movie was….supposed to be a remake of Fantasia? I definitely missed that while I was sleeping through it. It turned $150 million budget into $215 million, basically $90 million shy of what was hoped for.
2016’s Alice Through the Looking Glass was slightly underwhelming as a follow-up to 2010’s Wonderland. Just shy of $300 million off $170 million. Another $50 million would have made it work, but it just wasn’t meant to be.
2019 Dumbo, for anybody who remembered that this existed, I didn’t. Technically it may count as a win for somebody out there, $170 million made $350. But the ratings were just atrocious. This film was the final nail in the coffin that was Tim Burton’s relationship with Disney so…. there’s that.
2020’s Mulan remake was….. just bad. This and Aladdin were the only Disney remakes I paid for movie tickets on. I can’t decide which one I hated more. Actually Mulan wasn’t the worst…. But failing to make back even $70 million while costing $200 million was just painful to see. Maybe keep the best sidekick characters Disney. No Mushu? Dishonor! And Dishonor on your whole family! Even Dishonor on the cow!
Lastly, does anybody remember that they made a live-action remake of Pinocchio? No, I didn’t either.
What Now?
Disney just doesn’t seem to have the magic formula on remakes anymore. It seems to me the biggest failures fall into two categories.
Movies they either tried to change too much, or tried too hard to stick to shot-for-shot imagery, but had bad graphics/CGI.
When the movies succeed, it seems to me that its also for 1 of 2 reasons. They changed *just* enough to make the movie interesting, looking at you Maleficent 1 and 2. Or they kept the movie extremely faithful, but the imagery was immaculate. Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King.
Disney has reportedly placed a hiatus on all live action remakes for the time being. This will not affect the upcoming Lilo & Stitch live action (Release date May 23, 2025). Nor, it seems, will the recently announced Moana live action be affected (Release date July 10, 2026). They both seem far enough in production that just up and stopping would be costlier than moving ahead.
Personally, I am very excited for the Lilo & Stitch movie, as it was a personal favorite of mine back in the day. But my all time favorite animated movie was Aladdin, and 6 years later I still want my money back on that one. Here’s hoping ohana still means family. And that only bad remakes are left behind, and forgotten. Seriously, was Pinocchio really remade?!??
