Movies

Snow White flops over another dismal March 2025 box office weekend

BBG News

Even though a new Disney blockbuster hit theaters in 2025, it didn’t manage to lift the domestic box office out of its financial slump. Unlike previous March releases like “Beauty and the Beast” and “Alice in Wonderland,” which earned over $100 million domestically, the 2025 release, “Snow White,” struggled to make an impact. The new Marc Webb-directed version of the classic tale opened with just $43 million, a 4% decrease from the opening weekend of the last Disney Animation remake to bomb in March, “Dumbo.” This debut was also lower than the $56.2 million domestic launch of “Snow White & The Huntsman” from 13 years ago. Additionally, it only barely surpassed the domestic opening of the 2010 film “Robin Hood” and fell short of the three-day debut of the 2010 animated hit, “Tangled,” which had a Wednesday release to build anticipation.

live-action Disney remakes of cartoons made before 1960 typically don’t perform as well at the box office. While they can still be profitable (looking at you, ‘Alice in Wonderland’), the most successful remakes have actually been updates of more recent 1990s titles like ‘Aladdin’, ‘The Lion King’, and ‘Beauty and the Beast’. This trend in Disney remakes is mostly fueled by 1990s nostalgia, rather than audiences flocking to see any classic Disney cartoon adapted into live-action.

As a fervent admirer, let me share my insights about the recent releases. For instance, the film “Cruella,” which debuted simultaneously on premium-video-on-demand, garnered an impressive $21.49 million on its opening weekend. Interestingly, it has redefined the storyline of the 1961 classic, “101 Dalmatians.” Compared to other Disney Animation remakes like “Maleficent” and “Cinderella,” both pre-dating 1960, neither managed to surpass $70 million on their opening weekends. The release of “Snow White” is cause for concern, given that “Dumbo” only grossed $45 million in 2019.

You may have forgotten about it until now, but it’s worth mentioning that a Tom Hanks-led “Pinocchio” movie, along with “Peter Pan & Wendy,” and the 2019 version of “Lady and the Tramp,” were all released directly on Disney+. This trend suggests that there might not be a significant audience for live-action adaptations of lesser-known Disney tales like “Fun and Fancy Free” or the “Night on Bald Mountain” segment from “Fantasia.” On the contrary, classics like “The Little Mermaid” or “Lilo & Stitch” continue to resonate with viewers.

The main challenge for “Snow White” is its high production cost. Interestingly, even “Dumbo,” with a budget of $190 million, was pricier. This upcoming Webb film, on the other hand, comes with a hefty price tag of $269.4 million. One wonders why such a steep expense was necessary! My favorite, “Hundreds of Beavers,” was made for just $150,000 and provided an impressive return visually! In contrast, the upcoming “Wonka” (2023) had a budget of $125 million, “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” cost $122 million, and the first part of “Wicked” was priced at $150 million. Incredibly, the production cost for “Snow White” exceeds that of the original “Avatar,” “The Dark Knight Rises,” or “Captain America: Civil War”!

In contrast to the extravagant $320 million budget of “Electric State,” studio and streaming service movie budgets are escalating to such an extent that it’s nearly impossible for these films to turn a profit even under ideal circumstances. The idea of producing a “Snow White” film at a cost surpassing 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast” was always an ill-conceived notion, to say the least! The fact that talented filmmakers like John Waters, Todd Solondz, Ava DuVernay, and numerous independent creators face challenges in securing funding for their original works only adds to the distress over these exorbitant costs. This year, “Snow White” serves as an analogy to “The Flash”; a costly production beset by pre-release hype that audiences ultimately rejected. Nevertheless, it’s not particularly surprising given the pattern established by other live-action adaptations of Disney movies predating 1960. The alarming scale of its costs underscores broader issues within Hollywood and deserves constant discussion.

As a film enthusiast, I was quite pleased to see that “Black Bag” held its ground well this past weekend, sliding 42% to earn an additional $4.4 million, bringing its ten-day total to $14.8 million. If current trends continue, it’s looking like we might hit the $20+ million mark domestically, making it the fourth consecutive Focus Features release to reach this milestone following “Conclave,” “Nosferatu,” and “Last Breath.” Despite its $50 million budget, profits in theaters may not be achievable unless it experiences a global explosion. However, considering raw grosses, I’d say it’s a commendable success for original films catering to adults.

On the other hand, “Captain America: Brave New World” moved up to third place this weekend, hinting at the challenging state of the market. It managed another $4.1 million, representing a 28% decrease from last week. With one more stable weekend-to-weekend hold, it’s expected to surpass $200 million in North America.

Mickey 17 experienced a further decrease of 48%, earning $3.9 million over the past 17 days, bringing its domestic total to $40.2 million. Unfortunately, Novocaine failed to recover from its disappointing debut, dropping by 57% in its second week. This means it made an additional $3.76 million, amounting to a total of $15.76 million over the past ten days.

This weekend saw the debut of another new movie, “The Alto Knights“, which was the first film greenlit by the David Zaslav Warner Bros. administration. However, it struggled at the box office, grossing only $2.8 million from 2,651 theaters. This dismal opening is hard to spin positively. The fact that a poorly received and under-promoted mob thriller is bombing isn’t surprising. What’s amusing, though, is that the film’s opening earnings were lower than those of “The Day the Earth Blew Up“, a movie that Warner Bros., led by Zaslav, sold to a competing studio. Life can be quite ironic sometimes.

Over the weekend, the film “The Day the Earth Exploded” saw a 41% decrease in earnings, bringing in $1.83 million and now totaling $6.4 million in the U.S. This isn’t groundbreaking, but it’s worth noting that the distributor of “Exploded,” Ketchup Entertainment, is reportedly close to acquiring “Coyote vs. Acme.” That would be fantastic news.

“The Monkey” had another strong weekend, with a 38% drop in earnings, earning $1.54 million and now standing at a total of $37.86 million in the U.S. It’s looking increasingly likely that this indie horror movie will surpass $40 million domestically, which is an impressive achievement for such a film.

Despite the arrival of a fresh family film, Dog Man managed to hold its ground over the weekend, falling by 41% and earning an additional $1.5 million. This DreamWorks Animation production has now accumulated a total of $95.6 million. It’s a close call whether it will reach the $100 million mark domestically; I suspect it might fall just short, but we’ll see. In the top ten, The Last Supper saw a 52% decrease, earning another $1.53 million and bringing its domestic total to $5.32 million. Paddington in Peru experienced a 51% drop this weekend, adding another $1.3 million to its domestic total, which now stands at $43.66 million.

Last weekend, Avenue Entertainment, the company responsible for distributing “Land of Bad” domestically last year, premiered “Locked” in 971 cinemas with a modest opening of $964,000, translating to $993 per cinema on average. This suggests a sluggish beginning for the film. Among the three wide releases debuting this weekend in less than 1,500 theaters, “Ash” managed a slightly better performance with $716,777 from 1,136 locations, resulting in an average of $631 per cinema. Despite its lower numbers, it still outperforms recent openings by ELJ Entertainment’s sister company, IFC Films. It’s fascinating to live in a time where the director of “Kuso” sees a wide release. Once again, Briarcliff Entertainment’s wide release, “Magazine Dreams,” has failed to make an impact, grossing only $700,000 in 815 cinemas after its 2023 Sundance premiere, resulting in an average of $859 per cinema.

In its second weekend, the film Opus suffered a significant drop of 72% and earned only $282,521, bringing its domestic total to $1.8 million. Among A24 films that debuted in wide release, only Free Fire fared worse with $1.79 million. Although it’s likely to surpass the earnings of Tusk ($1.82 million), this is about the extent of its success. The documentary October 8 lost 14 theaters this weekend but saw a 7% rise after presenting impressive daily box office numbers in recent times. It earned an additional $250,000 from 113 locations, resulting in a per-theater average of $2,212. With this latest gross, October 8 has now amassed $851,116 and is on track to become the third documentary of 2025 to surpass $1+ million domestically.

In its current cinema run, the film “No Other Land” managed to boost its earnings by 9% this week, despite losing eight theaters compared to last weekend. With fewer screens in operation, it still brought in $181,575, bringing its total earnings to $1.74 million without a distributor. The low-key indie film “Epheus” expanded into 80 locations this week and grossed $108,273 per theater, averaging $1,353. Considering its modest status, it’s performing well, but it’s particularly impressive when considering the standards of distributor Music Box Films. This week, “Epheus” is expected to surpass “Fremont” to become Music Box Films’ largest release since “Transit” in 2019, excluding that title, it would be their biggest release since “The Midwife” from July 2017.

Established in 2008, Music Box Films gained significant traction between 2008 and 2017. Their initial success was boosted by the distribution of adaptations of the Swedish version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” propelling them forward. However, the label has been rather inactive over the last eight years. In these challenging times for independent cinema, it’s reassuring to see Music Box Films resurfacing with a low-key but strong production like “Epheus.

Over the weekend, Becoming Led Zeppelin surpassed the $10 million mark domestically with earnings of $84,517, an impressive milestone for both a documentary and a film from Sony Pictures Classics. On the other hand, Bob Trevino Likes It received an A+ CinemaScore but managed only $58,138 from five theaters, resulting in a theater average of $11,627. Interestingly, Secret Mall Apartment debuted with $40,500 at a single theater, a promising start, although it’s unclear how this will translate to its wider domestic release as the figures are from a solitary theater in Providence, Rhode Island, where the documentary is set.

The film “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” expanded into 112 theaters and brought in a total of $59,527, which averaged $531 per theater. After playing domestically for 17 days, it has now grossed a total of $118,179. Meanwhile, “Misericordia” debuted with earnings of $25,200 from 3 locations, resulting in an average of $8,400 per theater. Additionally, “Being Maria” made its opening appearance at a single location, earning $6,270.

As a movie enthusiast, I must admit, it’s quite disheartening to see that the top ten films this weekend collectively earned just $68.4 million. This breaks a three-weekend streak of domestic earnings in the $45.1-$48.5 million range, but the total gross for late March feels rather lackluster. In fact, the weekend of March 5-7, 1999, when “Analyze This” was first released, managed to earn slightly more than this frame, even without accounting for inflation. Remarkably, blockbusters from past Marches opened to $68 million or more on their own, whereas we’ve only just managed to reach that figure collectively in this weekend’s box office.

Looking back at March 2025’s box office performance, I can’t help but feel disheartened. With only one weekend left to make up ground, it’s evident that this year is shaping up to be the lowest-grossing March at the domestic box office since 1995 – excluding the exceptional circumstances of 2020 and 2021. The lineup of new movies this March has been disappointing, to say the least. They’ve all seemed insipid, limited in their appeal, and unfortunately, too many have belonged to the same genre.

However, there’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon. April 2025 promises to be more vibrant with exciting releases like “A Minecraft Movie”, “Warfare”, and “Sinners”. Here’s hoping that these upcoming films can lift our spirits after such a dreary start to the year.

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2025-03-24 17:15

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