Snow White box office explained and how it compares to Disney’s biggest live-action movies

Snow White may not be the fairest of them all based on the box office takings, since there’s still a while to go before the new Disney live-action movie can break even.

Much like the curses of old fairytales, the release of Snow White had a dark cloud looming over it from the very start. Controversies and backlash surrounding the cast and depiction of the seven dwarves became apparent, and the premiere was even shrunk down to avoid press as a result.

Review-wise, things are looking pretty mixed for this family movie. Critics have landed on a 43% score on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences have been more generous, with a rating of 75%.

So, how does this reflect in the box office numbers, and how is this latest magical adaptation faring against the rest?

What has Snow White made at the box office?

So far, Snow White has made $87.3 million worldwide with $43 million at the domestic box office. It was projected to earn $45 million across the entire opening weekend.

It earned $16 million from Friday and preview screenings, which covered around 4,200 theaters.

Disney

If the new movie does hit the estimated $45 million, that would make it the second-biggest opening of the year behind Captain America: Brave New World.

However, Snow White’s budget is an eye-watering $250 million, so it still has a way to go to make some of that money back at the box office.

That said, there’s potential for this to be a slow crawl – Mufasa: The Lion King opened to $35 million when it came out in December, but that ended up earning over $700 million worldwide by the end of its run.

How it ranks against other Disney live-action movies

With Snow White’s $43 million domestic opening weekend, it’s comparable to the likes of Dumbo (2019) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019), which made $45 million and $36 million during their domestic openings, respectively.

It’s a long way off some of Disney’s most successful live-action releases, with the top opening movies being The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Alice in Wonderland.

The Lion King, which had the most successful domestic opening in 2019, earned just over $191 million.

Here’s a full list of the biggest Disney live-action domestic openings, so you can see where Snow White ranks [via Box Office Mojo]:

• The Lion King ($191,770,759)
• Beauty and the Beast ($174,750,616)
• Alice in Wonderland ($116,101,023)
• The Jungle Book ($103,261,464)
• Aladdin ($91,500,929)
• Oz the Great and Powerful ($79,110,453)
• Maleficent ($69,431,298)
• Cinderella ($67,877,361)
• Dumbo ($45,990,748)
• Snow White (est: $43,000,000)
• Maleficent: Mistress of Evil ($36,948,713)
• 101 Dalmatians ($33,504,025)
• Alice Through the Looking Glass ($26,858,726)
• Mulan ($22,745,143)
• Pete’s Dragon ($21,514,095)
• Cruella ($21,496,997)
• 102 Dalmatians ($19,883,351)
• The Jungle Book ($5,129,959)

Snow White is available to watch in theaters now. For more, find out when it will be on Disney Plus. You can also take a look at the best animated movies of all time, and check out the 15 best movies on Disney+ to watch right now.