The Snow White remake has become one of Disney’s most infamous box office tragedies. Though it was a live-action remake of the widely popular Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the film faced so many challenges and criticisms that prevented it from achieving the desired box office numbers. While Snow White‘s performance in theaters made it a hard bomb for Disney to recover from, the studio could make a comeback with their upcoming live-action remakes of Moana and Lilo & Sтιтch.

Despite the negative press surrounding Disney’s live-action remakes, especially 2025’s Snow White, the new versions of Moana and Lilo & Sтιтch could help the studio make a comeback thanks to their relatively low budgets. The performances of both movies in theaters could also help Disney continue to make bigger-budget remakes that could achieve mᴀssive profits.

Snow White’s Mᴀssive Budget Put The Movie In A Bad Spot At The Box Office

Snow White Had To Make Quite A Lot To Profit From A Huge Production

Snow White is one of Disney’s biggest live-action remakes to date, so there was an extremely high bar for success in theaters. This blockbuster movie reportedly cost somewhere between $200 million and $270 million to make. Combined with the millions of dollars in marketing costs, Snow White had to make a large amount of money at the box office just to break even, reportedly between $540 and $675 million (via Collider).

Unfortunately for Disney, Snow White had been embroiled in multiple controversies long before its release, making it difficult for Disney to market the movie. Specifically, the film received backlash for its stark deviations from the original animated movie, the casting of a non-white actor as Snow White, lead actors Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot’s political views, and the depiction of CGI dwarves. This all culminated in people calling to boycott the movie, hurting its chances of success.

Overall, these huge roadblocks prevented Disney from drawing enough audiences into theaters to see their Snow White remake. Over a month after the film’s theatrical release, it reportedly made around $200 million at the box office (via Box Office Mojo). With these numbers, the movie didn’t even match its reported production budget, making one of Disney’s most expensive films one of its biggest box office bombs.

Why Snow White’s Budget Was So Large

Several Factors Increased The Price Of Snow White’s Production

A blockbuster like Snow White with mᴀssive sets, A-list actors, and extensive CGI visuals will naturally cost hundreds of millions of dollars to complete. However, unsatisfied with Snow White’s original cut, Disney demanded the production team conduct reshoots to fix the film before its release. These changes reportedly reworked the movie’s ending and added a new scene featuring the Evil Queen (via The New York Times). Such mᴀssive reshoots made an already expensive movie even more costly, making it harder to break even in theaters.

On top of that, like many other Hollywood productions, filming for Snow White had been delayed due to COVID-19, forcing the studio to shoot the movie during the pandemic. The delays didn’t stop there. Disney had to push the film’s release date back by a year due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Though these outside events were beyond Disney’s control, they surely caused public hype for Snow White to decline and the film’s cost to balloon way beyond what it should’ve been.

Disney’s Upcoming Live-Action Remakes Have Lower Budgets Than Snow White

Lilo & Sтιтch Cost Only A Fraction Of Snow White’s Budget

Snow White clearly had a long, tumultuous production that cost it dearly in the end. However, the other live-action remakes still on Disney’s release schedule should be easier on the studio’s wallets and actually turn a profit. For instance, while Snow White cost at most $270 million to make following reshoots and multiple delays, the Lilo & Sтιтch remake reportedly cost $150 million. Nevertheless, this is still an immensely lower price tag than Snow White‘s. Plus, Disney put a lot of effort into Lilo & Sтιтch‘s marketing, from poster crossovers to pranks at movie theaters. The studio’s confidence in the upcoming movie is a huge contrast to Snow White‘s lighter promotion.

At the same time, the Moana remake will possibly exceed $150 million in terms of budget. However, this cost hasn’t been confirmed at this point, as it is still a while before the film’s scheduled premiere in July 2026. Whatever the case is for both films, barring any major reshoots or delays from outside events, these live-action remakes should still be well under Snow White‘s $200+ million price range, making for easier productions and easier profits.

Lower Budgets Can Help Save Disney’s Live-Action Remakes

Disney Can Do More With Less When Making Live-Action Remakes

Disney’s reputation for live-action remakes has declined in recent years after several lackluster movies, particularly with Snow White. As a result, the chances of future remakes succeeding in theaters have lessened, with Disney seemingly stepping away from making more remakes after halting production of its live-action adaptation of Tangled.

However, upcoming films like the Lilo & Sтιтch and Moana remakes could succeed in profiting in theaters, despite any low box office numbers, thanks to their relatively lower budgets. Both movies are still popular with modern audiences, with Moana especially stuck in people’s minds after the animated sequel. Thus, these two live-action remakes should have a better chance of appealing to audiences in the coming months.

Also, if such movies are deemed a success at the box office, public perception of Disney’s live-action remakes could turn around, giving the studio the opportunity to profit from making more big-budget remakes that audiences would want to see. Lilo & Sтιтch is projected to make over $100 million on its opening weekend in late May, making it likely for the film to recoup its budget and make a hefty profit in theaters.

In the end, Snow White‘s disappointing performance in theaters proved that Disney needed to step back for a bit and rethink its approach to producing live-action remakes. Thankfully, the popularity and relatively low budgets of Moana and Lilo & Sтιтch could be the success stories that Disney hoped for with Snow White, which could hopefully teach the studio what it needs to do going forward. Both films could also help the studio regain the public’s confidence in their live-action remakes, potentially increasing the profits of future films that audiences will be excited about.

Source: Collider, Box Office Mojo, The New York Times