Here's How Much Money Rachel Zegler's Snow White Will Lose For Disney

Not that it was a secret to anyone who pays even a little bit of attention to box office happenings, but "Snow White" is proving to be one hell of a disaster for Disney. The live-action reimagining of the classic fairy tale recently suffered a very disappointing opening, earning barely north of $40 million at the domestic box office. While opening weekends aren't always the end of the discussion, in this case, that debut set the tone, and director Marc Webb's very pricey blockbuster isn't going to recover. Rather, it seems it's going to lose a fortune.

"Snow White," which stars Rachel Zegler ("West Side Story") and Gal Gadot ("Wonder Woman"), is expected to lose around $115 million when all's said and done, per Deadline. Mind you, that's not just at the box office with the promise of making up that lost revenue on home media, VOD, etc.; that number represents the total estimated loss for the studio after everything is factored in. Put simply? Yikes.

Now, there has been a lot of gossip around this film and its stars, but the failure of "Snow White" shouldn't be placed on Zegler's shoulders, even though she does play the title character. Nor is it fair to pin this on Gadot or even Webb, for that matter. This is an example of a film going way over budget and suffering through a lot of unfortunate circumstances, making it difficult to pin on any one person. This is Disney's cross to bear.

This latest report estimates that the film's final global box office total will be just $225 million. That is an absolute catastrophe, given that "Snow White" cost well over $250 million to make, which doesn't even account for marketing. Disney's total expenses are estimated to be over $400 million. So yeah, things are bad.

When it comes to box office, studios only see about half of the money from ticket sales, with theaters generally keeping the rest. So, in this case, Disney is probably only going to see a little over $100 million. That puts the studio in a big hole. Deadline's report estimates the studio will also see $62 million in worldwide home entertainment revenue, $130 million from streaming/TV revenue, and a mere $2 million from merchandise. Mind you, those are just estimates, but also ones that paint a grim picture.

In this movie's case, the pandemic raised costs, production was shut down at times, and massive reshoots took place. It was a mess. Even so, it's a reminder that Hollywood has a serious budget problem and that's been true for some time. But as things become increasingly uncertain at the box office, getting budgets under control feels of paramount importance. If Disney had made this movie for even $150 million, its losses would be far easier to swallow.

Disney isn't going to stop doing these live-action remakes any time soon, just like it isn't going to stop making Marvel movies. But it would behoove CEO Bob Iger and Co. to take a good, hard look at how money is being spent, and rein it in wherever possible. Theaters desperately need these big movies. They don't always work out, that's just part of the business. But losses of this size add up. This level of risk is irresponsible and indefensible.

The hope is that Disney and other studios begin to find ways to get the budgets on these bigger projects under control. $200 million simply can't be the norm. Is that better than $250 million or more? Absolutely, but that shouldn't be the bar. It doesn't need to be this way. It shouldn't be this way. 

"Snow White" is in theaters now.