After a hard run in theaters, Snow White finally made $200 million at the box office, making its worldwide gross higher than only a couple of Disney’s live-action remakes. Even though 2025’s Snow White made an extraordinary amount of money in theaters, Disney spent even more just to produce it, with additional marketing costs leaving the break-even point on a lofty perch.

Ultimately, Snow White making $200 million in theaters is actually a failure for Disney. While some of the live-action remakes made a billion dollars at the box office, Snow White failed to reach such high numbers. After not even gaining revenue in theaters, Snow White has left Disney with an extremely high bill. Arguably, this has proved that the media giant needs to cut back on spending so much money on remakes.

Snow White Avoided Being The Third Modern Disney Live-Action Remake To Not Make $200 Million

Snow White Just Nearly Joined A Group Of Modern Disney Remakes That Failed To Make Box Office Gold

Snow White reportedly had a production budget of $270 million and a marketing budget of $70 million. According to Collider, the film had to gross somewhere between $540 million and $675 just to break even. Snow White didn’t even make a quarter of its production budget back on its opening weekend, which saw only $42.2 million at the domestic box office.

Though it didn’t start off strong, Snow White finally crossed $200 million at the global box office after six full weekends in theaters. Only two of Disney’s previous live-action remakes failed to reach that milestone, but that alone wasn’t enough to make Snow White a success. Unfortunately for Disney, the film failed to earn back its mᴀssive production budget in theaters, so it can be considered a box office bomb at this point.

Snow White’s Performance Is Still Worse Than Disney’s Other Two Live-Action Remakes That Failed To Hit $200 Million

Though Snow White Made More Than Two Films, It Was Still Farthest From Breaking Even

While Snow White had such low numbers, it certainly isn’t the lowest-grossing Disney live-action remake. 2020’s Mulan, which is said to have had a $200 million budget, reportedly only made around $69.9 million at the box office (via CNN Business and Box Office Mojo). However, Mulan‘s underperformance can be excused due to the COVID-19 pandemic putting the world on lockdown. Disney also benefited after it gave the film a PVOD release on Disney+, so the box office numbers don’t show all the profits.

On the other hand, 2018’s Christopher Robin reportedly made over $197.7 million in theaters (via Box Office Mojo). While this turnout was just under $200 million, Box Office Mojo also claimed that Christopher Robin was far less expensive than Mulan due to having a $75 million budget, meaning it still could have made a profit or at least paid for itself at the box office.

Snow White’s Box Office Struggles Reinforce A Problem With Most Disney’s Live-Action Remakes

Snow White Is Proof That Disney Has To Start Making More With Less

The fact that Snow White failed to profit in theaters despite making over $200 million shows how Disney is spending way too much money making live-action remakes, as they need to earn at least twice their budget just to break even. Though Snow White‘s initial budget had ballooned due to production delays, reshoots, and postponed release dates, removing these additional costs wouldn’t have helped the movie with what it made in theaters.

Disney should aim to spend as much money as they did to produce Christopher Robin after the reputation of their live-action remakes has declined. Lilo & Sтιтch has already followed Christopher Robin‘s lead with a reported $150 million budget. Combined with a lack of production delays or negative press, Lilo & Sтιтch‘s relatively low budget could allow it to make even more money than Snow White.

Due to the underperformance of Snow White in theaters, Disney will have to lower the budgets of any other live-action remakes just to recoup its losses. However, simply decreasing these budgets could give such films better chances of doing well at the box office and driving revenue for Disney. The movie may have earned more money in theaters than Mulan or Christopher Robin, but such high costs and low box office numbers made it even less profitable for Disney.

Source: Collider, CNN Business, Box Office Mojo