“Snow White” Lost Disney Nearly $170 Million

Almost a year ago came Disney’s live-action “Snow White” film, which proved a disaster – generating global box-office of just $205.7 million worldwide from a reported production budget of around $240–270 million at the time.

Multiple reasons were cited as being part of the film’s failure – from the nearly century-old Disney IP, multiple “Snow White” adaptations in the past, the bad/mixed reviews, and an online backlash campaign against the film that was in full swing well before release.

That said, the over billion-dollar-grossing “Lilo & Stitch” shows that the appetite for live-action Disney remakes is still there, but more for the 1990s/2000s titles than for films that came out when the grandfathers and great-grandfathers of kids today were children.

Now, a new report from Forbes has cited company filings which indicate the studio will end up losing a reported $168.7 million on the project, as they indicate the film was “forecasted to be over the production budget” with costs adding up to $336.5 million.

That said, the U.K. government reimbursed $64.9 million of the movie’s costs, which brings its net expenses down to $271.6 million. Minus the studio’s share of box-office revenue (an estimated $102.9 million) and that’s how the loss was calculated.

That said, it doesn’t take into account either marketing expenses or home entertainment/merchandise revenue. The filings go up to the end of December 2024 – three months before the film’s release – and are said to give an “almost-complete picture of its costs”.