Walt Disney Studios’ live-action adaption of the classic Brothers Grimm tale Snow White is set to be released in theatres this month, 21 March in the United States. The film has had a long and arduous journey to the silver screen—it originally was supposed to come out a year before, but it was delayed due to the many, many controversies surrounding it.
The first one of them was completely self-inflicted by Disney: they decided to cast Latina actress Rachel Zegler in the role of an iconic character named Snow White, known for having ‘skin as white as snow’…
By the time to release the film into theatres has eventually arrived, it seems that Disney itself has lost all of its confidence in the project. At least this seems to be the most reasonable interpretation of the recent developments: a grand premiere originally planned to take place at Leicester Square in London, United Kingdom on Wednesday, 12 March has been cancelled.
Instead, Snow White had its ceremonial debut showing at the small, remote castle of Alcázar of Segovia in Segovia, Spain, which only photographers and Disney’s in-house media staff were allowed to attend. For a major production like this, it is customary to invite dozens of major media outlets to the premiere to hold glitzy red-carpet interviews with the stars.
'A grand premiere for Snow White originally planned to take place at Leicester Square in London, United Kingdom on Wednesday, 12 March has been cancelled'
Reporters will be allowed to attend the US premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, California on 15 March—however, they will not be allowed to ask any questions from the film’s two stars, Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, the New York Post reports.
The number of controversies around the film can hardly be enumerated here. However, the latest one, which most likely sparked Disney’s decision to scale back the launch events, was the alleged tension between Zegler (playing Snow White) and Gal Gadot (playing the Evil Queen).
Zegler has publicly voiced her support for Palestine in the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict multiple times. Gal Gadot, on the other hand, is an Israeli citizen who has even completed her mandatory service in the Israeli Defence Forces. In an environment like that, speculation is that Disney was afraid of having protesters show up at the premiere.
However, with the event’s cancellation, the studio gave up on prime promotion opportunities utilized by every other major release. Box office projections already look grim (no pun intended) for the new Snow White film, with industry insiders estimating its opening weekend to bring in $48 million to $58 million in the domestic market.
That is a far cry from the around $600 million the movie needs to make at the box office just to break even. Major post-production edits were made, mostly the addition of CGI dwarfs after fan backlash over their replacement with a 'diverse cast of magical creatures'. They ballooned up the production budget to around $270 million, which does not include the marketing costs. Film theatres typically take 50 per cent of the ticket revenue, which gives us the $600 million figure for the break-even point cited above.
In a domestic market handicapped by controversies, Disney will have to hope their Latina Snow White film is saved by the international market.
Related articles:
