Disney (and others) at the Box Office - Current State of Affairs

[Disney Irish]

Really? It doesn't ring a bell for me as I reflect back on this fabulolus thread. According to Google, it was apparently made for "a budget less than $15 Million" (so I just put it as $10 Million in her career tally) and it made $4.4 Million at the box office.

At $15 per ticket, that means roughly 290,000 Americans saw her in Y2K, or roughly the population of Anchorage, Alaska (Anchorage city limits only, and not those uppity suburbs of Chugiak and Eklutna).

Something tells me Snow White is going to be Miss Zegler's last movie for awhile. Sorry, Anchorage.

It doesn't matter how many tickets it sold. The point was it was known and was discussed here in this thread where you remember it or not.

As for her future prospects, only her agent and management team know what lies ahead for her beyond the announced West End revival of Evita in June. But there are MANY MANY MANY projects in Hollywood, from huge budget franchise movies to streaming movies to small indy projects that only cinephiles know and talk about. So I'm fairly certain that she'll be cast in another role soon enough even if its not a huge budget Disney film that we talk about here.

 

[Disney Irish]

You need to take into consideration the additional money Disney had to pay for security for Gal Gadot thanks to miss Zegler and add it to the film's budget.

That is so minuscule comparatively, its a rounding error, ie not enough to truly affect the budget.

And as some tried to push on me regarding my recent comments of the budget, please provide actual documentation that shows how much that added to the films budget. I doubt you'll find any, but please do if you can. If its more than $100K (and that seems high) I'd be surprised.

 

[Disney Irish]

And in other news, Netflix's latest big budget movie The Electric State starring latest "it" girl Millie Bobbie Brown and "it" guy Chris Pratt flops on the service, has worse ratings than Snow White and cost a whole lot more (reportedly over $320M putting it on the highest budget movies of all time list) too. I vaguely remember talk on the web that Netflix had even considered a full theatrical release for it which is why they had a Premiere at Netflix's owned Grauman's Egyptian Theater, but beyond that premiere that didn't happen and it wasn't released to theaters. I suspect after they saw the final cut of the film.

Which shows that not every movie in the market is going to be a winner no matter who stars are in it or how much budget it has attributed to it.

 

[Casper Gutman]

The central mistake in the production of Snow White seems obvious to me - the Dwarfs are the focus of the original film. Snow and the Prince are ciphers. The meat of the film is the antics of the Dwarfs. They are also the only characters with an arc. And yet the Dwarfs seem not even to have been included in the film as originally shot. Imagine the press from casting seven well-known comedians in the key roles.

 

[Tha Realest]

That is so minuscule comparatively, its a rounding error, ie not enough to truly affect the budget.

And as some tried to push on me regarding my recent comments of the budget, please provide actual documentation that shows how much that added to the films budget. I doubt you'll find any, but please do if you can. If its more than $100K (and that seems high) I'd be surprised.

The difference is his suggestion was obviously intended as a joke, whereas your assertion was meant to be serious and is unintentionally funny.

 

[Tha Realest]

It doesn't matter how many tickets it sold. The point was it was known and was discussed here in this thread where you remember it or not.

As for her future prospects, only her agent and management team know what lies ahead for her beyond the announced West End revival of Evita in June. But there are MANY MANY MANY projects in Hollywood, from huge budget franchise movies to streaming movies to small indy projects that only cinephiles know and talk about. So I'm fairly certain that she'll be cast in another role soon enough even if its not a huge budget Disney film that we talk about here.

Fair or not, she is going to be saddled with the stink of this failure and is likely viewed as a headache actor to deal with in terms of marketing and PR. Those are two big hurdles to overcome for studios.

She’s been supposedly rumored for a few Disney projects (MCU, Phantom of the Opera). Let’s watch and see if they sign her up to any of those soon.

 

[AdventureHasAName]

I said this when the Seven United Hobos of Benetton photo was leaked, but this film should have been used as a tax write-off like Batgirl. That would have allowed them to immediately put a faithful live-action version of Snow White into production.

 

[Trauma]

The central mistake in the production of Snow White seems obvious to me - the Dwarfs are the focus of the original film. Snow and the Prince are ciphers. The meat of the film is the antics of the Dwarfs. They are also the only characters with an arc. And yet the Dwarfs seem not even to have been included in the film as originally shot. Imagine the press from casting seven well-known comedians in the key roles.

The original movie came out in 1937 and evidently so. Hahahaha

Disney has cast 7 wonderfully talented comedians as the dwarves but seem to have forgotten, I am the star of the show.

Weird, Weird

Anyways they are taking screen time away from me and the girl power message, so maybe they will just be cut out of the film entirely.

Who knows what’s going to happen.

That’s Hollywood baby!!

 

[Casper Gutman]

I said this when the Seven United Hobos of Benetton photo was leaked, but this film should have been used as a tax write-off like Batgirl. That would have allowed them to immediately put a faithful live-action version of Snow White into production.

Absolutely no one needs “a faithful live-action version of Snow White.”

Posters rightfully denigrate the existence of the live-action remakes and then turn around and get mad that they aren’t faithful enough. Almost like the point is just to get mad.

 

[LittleBuford]

I said this when the Seven United Hobos of Benetton photo was leaked, but this film should have been used as a tax write-off like Batgirl. That would have allowed them to immediately put a faithful live-action version of Snow White into production.

The trailer and advertising made this remake seem pretty faithful. I realise it isn’t, but in terms of attracting viewers, the marketing has leaned heavily into nostalgia. It seems unlikely to me that closeness (or otherwise) to the original is the determining factor here in why the film isn’t doing well.

 

[Chi84]

The dwarfs are the only interesting characters in the original and Disney made them look weird.

 

[AdventureHasAName]

Absolutely no one needs “a faithful live-action version of Snow White.”

Posters rightfully denigrate the existence of the live-action remakes and then turn around and get mad that they aren’t faithful enough. Almost like the point is just to get mad.

Not me. I think the live-action remakes are perfectly fine (and a smart business decision) ... as long as they adhere as closely as possible to the originals.

 

[AdventureHasAName]

The trailer and advertising made this remake seem pretty faithful. I realise it isn’t, but in terms of attracting viewers, the marketing has leaned heavily into nostalgia. It seems unlikely to me that closeness (or otherwise) to the original is the determining factor here in why the film isn’t doing well.

I think it was almost impossible to hide what they did with false marketing. People are too online now; the story was how much of a screwup this film was (and how awful Zegler is), not how close it was to the original.

 

[AdventureHasAName]

The dwarfs are the only interesting characters in the original and Disney made them look weird.

Meanwhile, twenty years ago, Peter Jackson made this and everyone thought it was great (and it printed money).

 

[Chi84]

Meanwhile, twenty years ago, Peter Jackson made this and everyone thought it was great (and it printed money).

The Tolkien books told an exceptional story. The fact that Peter Jackson could bring that world to life the way he did was genius.

Now if the story involved Arwen forcing them to wash up before she would give them dinner, I’m not sure it would have been as exciting.

 

[LittleBuford]

I think it was almost impossible to hide what they did with false marketing. People are too online now; the story was how much of a screwup this film was (and how awful Zegler is), not how close it was to the original.

It strikes me as highly unlikely that the wider world knows nearly as much as we do about all the circumstances surrounding the project. Perhaps I’m wrong and the various controversies we’ve been discussing are well known to millions and millions of potential movie-goers across the world, but based on what I’ve seen among my own friends and family (none of whom follow any of this stuff), I very much doubt it.

 

[Disney Irish]

The difference is his suggestion was obviously intended as a joke, whereas your assertion was meant to be serious and is unintentionally funny.

The way that poster has been posing lately I doubt if it was meant as a joke. And even if it was, so what the point is still the same, it’s a rounding error at most.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

It strikes me as highly unlikely that the wider world knows nearly as much as we do about all the circumstances surrounding the project. Perhaps I’m wrong and the various controversies we’ve been discussing are well known to millions and millions of potential movie-goers across the world, but based on what I’ve seen among my own friends and family (none of whom follow any of this stuff), I very much doubt it.

I doubt many people knew to the extent that we did (those of us who actively follow Disney) but nearly every article discussing Snow Whites box office struggles talks about the controversial comments as one of the primary reasons, along with the dwarfs controversy, the casting controversy, the delays, etc. I think Average Joes had a general awareness of the issues surrounding the film, especially some of the widely reported things like “weird, weird” or the election comments.

I don’t think any one thing doomed this film but the combination of several smaller things taken together created an overall negative perception which likely lead to people simply staying home.

 

[Disney Irish]

Fair or not, she is going to be saddled with the stink of this failure and is likely viewed as a headache actor to deal with in terms of marketing and PR. Those are two big hurdles to overcome for studios.

She’s been supposedly rumored for a few Disney projects (MCU, Phantom of the Opera). Let’s watch and see if they sign her up to any of those soon.

All actors go through a period where they have to deal with failure, and she is going to be no different with this film. Does that make her undesirable by all Studios, doubt it.

As for future projects with Disney, maybe they don't hire her again. So what? Disney is not the only game in town, as I've been reminded on many occasions on this board. So just like consumers, actors have other choices in Studios as well. So maybe she works small budget films for awhile. Or maybe she does indy work. Or maybe she does voice acting. Or maybe she sticks to the stage for a bit. Point is that as an actor who by all accounts is talented and nice (PR stuff aside) she has choices, and I'm sure she'll be fine.

And if Disney does hire her again, I'm sure all of you guys will be on this board cursing the very ground she walks on when that announcement gets made.

 

[LittleBuford]

I doubt many people knew to the extent that we did (those of us who actively follow Disney) but nearly every article discussing Snow Whites box office struggles talks about the controversial comments as one of the primary reasons, along with the dwarfs controversy, the casting controversy, the delays, etc. I think Average Joes had a general awareness of the issues surrounding the film, especially some of the widely reported things like “weird, weird” or the election comments.

I don’t think any one thing doomed this film but the combination of several smaller things taken together created an overall negative perception which likely lead to people simply staying home.

I struggle to be convinced by the idea that this stuff gained traction in all the international markets where the film is performing just as badly. I'm sure the controversies and issues haven't helped matters (the leaked production photos in particular seem to have painted the project in an unflattering light), but I don't its chances of being a blockbuster would have been much better had others been cast in the role(s) played by Zegler and/or Gadot.