Three different live-action remakes of animated films have been released in 2025 so far, and the box office and reception for Snow White have made it the least successful of them all. While there are reasons to watch Snow White now that it is on Disney+, the film failed to draw audiences to the cinemas and attracted ire online for various reasons, including the depictions of the dwarves and comments from star Rachel Zegler. Unfortunately, this all resulted in a loss for Disney that has become more significant after the release of a recent film.
Live-action remakes are a strange beast, and gauging their prospective success can be hard. While Disney still has many live-action remakes in the works, they are questioning their methods after several big hits and several big misses. This reᴀssessment has paused production on a Tangled remake, among others. While more remakes are certainly likely to come in the future, Disney, as well as the other studios that have dipped their toes into the trend, like Universal, will have to learn a few important lessons from some other recent films.
Snow White Is The Lowest-Grossing 2025 Live-Action Remake After How To Train Your Dragon Beat It
The Difference Will Continue To Grow
Despite carrying the biggest budget of the three, Snow White recently became the lowest-grossing live-action remake of 2025 after being quickly pᴀssed by the release of How to Train Your Dragon. Snow White only reaped a worldwide total of $205.6 million, which did not even come close to earning back its estimated $240-270 million budget, allowing How to Train Your Dragon to pᴀss it in only a few days. The box office for How to Train Your Dragon is already strong, with the film currently having earned $218 million in only its first five days of release.
The box office successes of Lilo & Sтιтch and How to Train Your Dragon are even more impressive due to their budgets. Lilo & Sтιтch was made for a reported $100 million, while How to Train Your Dragon cost an estimated $150 million.
Following the excellent box office run for Lilo & Sтιтch, Snow White is by far the lowest earner of the three. While Lilo & Sтιтch may not earn a billion-dollar global gross, it will certainly come close. Considering that Sтιтch was originally planned to be a streaming release, while Snow White was hoped to be one of the biggest films of the year, it is clear that the approach to these remakes will need to be readjusted. While not everyone has loved Lilo & Sтιтch, there is no denying that the film has been able to garner a significant audience.
Snow White Was Always Likely To Have The Lowest Box Office Among 2025’s Live-Action Remakes
Even If It Was A Hit
Fresh off of the incredible success of The Jungle Book in 2016, Disney first began work on a live-action Snow White remake. While this seemed like a good idea at the time, especially following the excellent responses to Kenneth Branagh’s 2015 Cinderella, things have changed in the intervening years. The box office for live-action Disney remakes has softened, with the adaptations of older properties not garnering as much attention. With each pᴀssing year, the prospects for Snow White seemed to grow worse.
When the first look at Snow White caused controversy over the CGI, things looked even worse for the picture. Snow White was delayed by a year due to plans for reshoots that were affected by the SAG-AFTRA strikes, and audiences lost whatever little faith they had in the film. There wound up being a very low ceiling for what Snow White was likely to gross in the end, but various controversies surrounding the film, followed by a truncated press tour, contributed to little interest, resulting in shockingly few people going to see it in cinemas.
Disney’s Live-Action Remake Loss Is Worse In 2025
The Climate For Live-Action Remakes Is Beginning To Change
In the past, live-action remakes of animated classics were almost exclusively a Disney project. Now, however, it seems that other studios are looking for a piece of that same pie. While there have been many notable films based on cartoons in the past, How to Train Your Dragon is the first live-action remake from Universal and DreamWorks, and may begin a trend for the studio. While not every DreamWorks film could make the jump to live-action, with some, like Madagascar, being a poor fit for the format, they do have several properties that could be successfully exploited in this way.
Snow White was a big failure for the studio, but it also does not feel like a true anomaly after the underperformance of films like The Little Mermaid.
A sequel to How to Train Your Dragon has been announced, and various other films are also likely to be remade, biting into Disney’s market share. Disney has already remade most of their most popular films, whereas other producers like DreamWorks have a large library of hits to pull from. Live-action remakes of films including The Boss Baby and Shrek feel almost inevitable from DreamWorks, and other studios like Illumination will certainly throw their hat in the ring eventually with remakes of The Secret Life of Pets and Despicable Me.
Disney’s live-action remakes are in an important state of reconsideration, but the difficulties for the studio within this genre will only increase in the years ahead. Snow White was a big failure for the studio, but it also does not feel like a true anomaly after the underperformance of films like The Little Mermaid. The future looks bright for other animation studios to begin making remakes of their own enormous films, but Disney’s time in the sun, despite hits like Lilo & Sтιтch, may be coming to an end when it comes to live-action remakes.
