Disney‘s feature take of 1937 classic toon Snow White is finally hitting theaters after weathering a tormenting tabloid, blown out of proportion controversy. Domestic is looking to land between a $45M-$50M opening with another $55M abroad.
The reported $270M feature production came under fire on social for the casting of Latina-Polish descent actress Rachel Zegler in the lead role, who pushed back against the criticism, in addition to the actress’ candid remarks about the original film and a slamming of Donald Trump and his supporters back in November. It’s believed that some of this sentiment is in the ether, which has pushed down on tickets sales, and led Disney to pare down its world premiere on Saturday which excluded mainstream press from the carpet (this despite them putting on a full extravaganza pre-party with food, free candy, afternoon Appletinis, faux gem digging and Zegler taking selfies in the crowd).
The marketplace is starving for a hit, and the spring break audience is there with 25% K-12 schools off this Friday per Comscore. Presales are currently around $5M after a short two week window after going on sale, which is right behind Kung Fu Panda 4, we’re told, (which opened to $57.9M) and ahead of Dumbo ($45.99M), an opening many are fearing that Snow White will sink toward. If this movie overindexes it’s with Latino and family moviegoers. Currently the pic is solid with girls 6-11, and teen girls 12-16 and the 17-34 demo. Good news, is that Saturday and Sunday family business is looking up; it’s not just the Twilight teen girl crowd going to see this Zegler-Gal Gadot movie. Rotten Tomatoes reviews haven’t hit yet.
Stateside, pic is booked at 4,200 theaters with previews starting at 2PM Thursday. Snow White starts offshore play in France and Korea, notably, on Wednesday; followed by Germany, Italy, Australia, Brazil and Mexico on Thursday, and China on Friday. In comps, Cinderella bowed to $74M (including $22M for China), while The Little Mermaid opened to $68M overseas.
Disney has been here before: They came under fire with the casting of Halle Bailey in The Little Mermaid. That movie did perfectly fine stateside with a 3-day of $95.5M, and domestic of $298.1M, but overseas didn’t overindex only repping 48% of a near $570M worldwide. Other scenarios where Disney faced controversy which took a movie as collateral damage at the box office was with Star Wars: A Solo Story. The change-up in filmmakers months ahead of release from Lord and Miller to old guard Ron Howard didn’t sit well with fans, and lingered all the way to opening weekend. In addition, Alden Ehrenreich isn’t a dead ringer for Harrison Ford.
Courtesy of RLJE Films & Shudder
Also opening this weekend is the David Zaslav greenlit Barry Levison directed, Robert De Niro twin gangster movie, Alto Knights, which is eyeing around $5M aimed at older dudes at 2,500 theaters. The R-rated movie starts showtimes at 3PM Thursday. RLJE/Shudder’s Flying Lotus directed sci-fi movie Ash which stars Eiza González as an astronaut who wakes up to find her entire crew dead. Aaron Paul also stars. The movie world premiered at SXSW followed by an LA premiere last night; in both instances greeted with applause. Ash, which was shot in New Zealand, is booked at 1,062 theaters. Ash starts showtimes on Wednesday at 5PM.
