Box Office: Stop Treating $1 Billion As The Bar For Success

Disney's 'Snow White' will likely fail to top 'Dumbo,' let alone 'Cinderella' or 'The Little Mermaid,' but getting anywhere near 'Aladdin' or 'Lion King' was never in the cards.

Concerning the shameful ongoing attempts to pin Snow White’s commercial failure on 23-year-old newbie Rachel Zegler, I’ll merely note that I’m old enough to remember when DreamWorks blamed The Island’s implosion on then-21-year-old Scarlett Johansson not living up to her alleged pre-MCU star power. Nonetheless, one quote stood out in Variety’s “Inside Disney’s Snow White Fiasco” article as a key part of the problem. An anonymous rival studio executive argued, “That movie (Snow White) should be a billion-dollar movie.” Yes, the film reportedly cost $270 million (another problem, natch), but spending too much money shouldn’t equate to inflated expectations. The Little Mermaid couldn’t crack $600 million in 2023 (while earning $298 million domestically). The Jungle Book, opening in 2016 amid Disney domination and with everything in its favor, could “only” notch $966 million. There is no circumstance in which a Snow White remake released in 2025 gets anywhere near $1 billion in global grosses.