Turns out Snow White isn’t the fairest of them all after all.
Disney’s remake of the 1937 animated classic was a box office flop, earning less than $50 million in its opening weekend in theaters. The tally gives the controversy-plagued film the unenviable distinction of being among the Mouse House’s worst-performing live-action updates.
On Monday’s show, Megyn was joined by Ben Shapiro, host of The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro Show, to discuss the dismal numbers and what Disney needs to learn from the fail.
Snow White Flops
So, just how bad were the initial numbers for Snow White? It brought in a mere $87 million globally in its opening weekend – and just $43 million of that came from domestic movie-goers. “It totally imploded at the box office this weekend,” Megyn said. “It was so delicious.”
The $43 million mark makes it the second-worst performance of any live-action Disney remake in history. The number bested only Mufasa: The Lion King (2024), which brought in a meager $35 million when it debuted in December.
It remains to be seen if Snow White, which cost well over $200 million to make, can rebound from the rough start. While the flick has an abysmal 44 percent score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, it does boast a 74 percent audience approval rating.
On Thursday’s episode of The Megyn Kelly Show, Hollywood in Toto host Christian Toto said the movie was better than he expected given all the controversy and how bad Disney’s live-action films tend to be. Even so, he accurately predicted it to be a thorn in the side of the entertainment giant.
The Controversy
Snow White’s poor showing at home and abroad came after years of problems and delays. The outcry began back in 2023 when it became apparent Disney intended to replace the beloved Seven Dwarfs with so-called “magical creatures” to “avoid reinforcing stereotypes” (CGI depictions of the iconic characters ended up making the final cut).
During filming, the actress playing Snow White, Rachel Zegler, made a point to say her version of the protagonist has would have a “modern edge” that wouldn’t be waiting on Prince Charming. She also gave Disney execs plenty of headaches with her diatribe against Trump voters in the aftermath of the 2024 election and “Free Palestine” proclamations on social media.
All of that led the release of the film to be pushed from March 2024 to March 2025. Even with the extra time, the press tour for Snow White was decidedly minimal, reportedly due to concerns about Zegler’s popularity and behind-the-scenes tension between her and co-star Gal Gadot, who was born in Israel and served in the IDF.
‘Predictable Fail’
In Shapiro’s view, Snow White’s sleepy opening was “the most predictable fail” due to the series of dopey controversies. Take, for instance, the “magical creatures” debacle. After the scrutiny over nixing of the Seven Dwarfs, Shapiro said “they went back to the drawing board and came up with these bizarre, uncanny valley dwarves were about as creepy as anything has ever been on.”
But he took even greater offense with the changes made to the film’s score. “They got rid of two of the original songs from the originally fantastic score and replaced them with a couple of generic cop songs by [Benj] Pasek and [Justin] Paul,” Shapiro noted. “Someday My Prince Will Come” was among those nixed from the remake.
Ultimately, Shapiro had a message for Disney. “Number one, stop cannibalizing all your old [intellectual property]… It is really bad business,” he concluded. “Number two, please stop changing all of these historic classics that have meaning to generations of people to instead become generic, woke stories about how ‘woman leads revolutionary uprising and she don’t need no man’ because guess what? Nobody grew up with that crap and nobody is all that interested.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Shapiro by tuning in to episode 1,033 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.