Box Office: ‘Snow White’ Leads With Sleepy $43 Million, Robert De Niro’s Mob Drama ‘Alto Knights’ Misfires With Disastrous $3 Million Debut

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In its initial domestic release, “Snow White” has earned an impressive leading sum of approximately $43 million, making it the most beautiful among them all. However, Disney’s recent live-action adaptation has had a slow beginning.

Worldwide, “Snow White” had a slightly lower opening than anticipated, earning $44.3 million, resulting in a global debut of $87.3 million. Initially, it was predicted that the movie would gross $100 million worldwide by the end of the weekend.

The film adaptation of “Snow White” faced several challenges upon release, such as criticisms over its portrayal of the seven dwarves, disapproval about alterations to the century-old narrative, and calls for boycotts due to the political views expressed by stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict. Additionally, costly reshoots increased the movie’s budget significantly. As a consequence, Disney decided to downsize the Los Angeles premiere, omitting the customary red carpet interviews. Nonetheless, experts argue that the wave of negative press did not affect box office sales.

According to senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian, this situation isn’t typically desirable. In the context of ‘Snow White’, it seems that children and their families were primarily interested in watching a G-rated movie, possibly without knowledge of the surrounding issues.

Despite being a cinematic adaptation of the 1937 animated original, this Disney reimagining has recorded the lowest domestic opening yet among its remakes, even falling short of 2019’s “Dumbo” which earned $45 million (unadjusted for inflation). Previous adaptations such as “The Little Mermaid,” “The Jungle Book,” “Aladdin,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and “The Lion King” all debuted with more than $100 million. Remarkably, three of these – 2019’s “Aladdin,” 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast,” and 2019’s “The Lion King” – were billion-dollar box office hits, while a fourth, 2016’s “The Jungle Book,” came very close with earnings of $967 million.

In simpler terms, the success or failure of the upcoming “Snow White” musical movie depends on its longevity at the box office. If it earns around $353 million globally, like “Dumbo,” it might suggest that audiences are losing interest in Disney’s live-action reboots after multiple retellings. “The Little Mermaid” from 2023 didn’t meet expectations with a global gross of $569 million, and another remake, “Lilo & Stitch,” is set to release in cinemas next month.

As a devoted cinephile, I’m excited to share that Disney is optimistic about “Snow White” emulating the gradual yet powerful rise of December’s “The Lion King” prequel, “Mufasa.” Just like how “The Lion King” started with a soft opening of $35 million but later soared to an impressive domestic total of $252 million and a staggering global gross of $716 million, Disney expects “Snow White” to benefit from familiar brand recognition and a lack of significant competition. Additionally, the film’s positive “B+” rating on CinemaScore exit polls will certainly contribute to its success.

David A. Gross, head of FranchiseRe movie consulting firm, notes that this isn’t one of Disney’s usual blockbusters. Instead, it’s more of a modest debut compared to Disney’s traditional standards. The film’s success hinges on whether it can maintain audience interest for a few months, as ‘Mufasa’ did lately. Disney is skilled at promoting their films, and this release appears to be a promising opportunity.

He notes, ‘It’s important to remember that for Disney animations, box office earnings are just the beginning. For instance, ‘Snow White’ has been incredibly profitable through merchandise sales, and the intellectual property can be leveraged in various ways across our theme parks.’

Over the weekend, I found myself among the many who were disappointed by the disappointing domestic debut of Robert De Niro’s R-rated mob drama, “The Alto Knights.” Debuting in over 2,800 cinemas, it managed a dismal $3 million, barely making a dent on the box office charts where it landed in sixth place.

Considering its production cost of around $45 million, the Warner Bros. film is already looking like one of the year’s biggest flops. It’s a real shame to see such a talented cast and crew’s hard work not being fully appreciated by audiences.

In the case of “Alto Knights,” starring Robert De Niro as dual crime bosses in New York, critical reception hasn’t been favorable. The movie received a ‘B’ grade from CinemaScore and a disappointing 39% average on Rotten Tomatoes. Unfortunately, this latest release from Warner Bros. follows the underperformance of “Mickey 17,” directed by Bong Joon Ho, which is projected to lose between $75 million and $80 million in its theatrical run after a poor box office performance. In its third week of release, “Mickey 17” has dropped to fifth place on the box office charts, earning $3.7 million. To date, it has grossed $40 million domestically and $100 million worldwide, but with a budget of $118 million, these earnings may not cover its costs.

In a surprising turn of events, the bodybuilding drama “Magazine Dreams,” featuring Jonathan Majors, struggled to make an impact with a box office take of $700,000 from 800 theaters. This film initially garnered praise at Sundance in January 2023 and was touted as a comeback opportunity for Majors, whose career had slowed down after he was convicted of domestic assault and harassment against his ex-girlfriend later that same year. After the high-profile trial, Searchlight Pictures decided to withdraw their distribution rights, but Briarcliff Entertainment took on the film instead.

In other domestic box office rankings, Steven Soderbergh’s slick thriller “Black Bag” had a strong second weekend, earning $4.4 million from 2,713 theaters, dropping only 42% from its initial release. Moving up from the third spot upon its debut, the R-rated film climbed to the second place position over the weekend. To date, it has garnered a total of $14.9 million. Focus Features, which invested $50 million in “Black Bag”, is optimistic that positive reviews will foster word-of-mouth popularity for the film.

In its sixth week, Disney’s Marvel follow-up titled “Captain America: A Bold New Era,” gathered $4.3 million, placing it third at the box office. Featuring Anthony Mackie, this action-packed superhero tale has amassed $192 million in the U.S. and a total of $400.8 million globally, making it the top Hollywood film of the year so far. However, these earnings have yet to cover its substantial production cost of $180 million.

The action comedy “Novocaine” from Paramount fell to the fourth spot following its number one position last weekend. It earned an additional $3.7 million from 3,369 cinemas, experiencing a significant decrease of 57% compared to its opening week. To date, “Novocaine” has made a total of $15.7 million domestically and $5.3 million internationally. Fortunately, the production costs were around $18 million, which means it doesn’t need to make much more to become profitable.

Despite “Snow White” contributing a modest boost to the market, overall box office earnings have been dismal. The revenues are running approximately 7% behind the projections for 2024 and a staggering 39% lower than those of 2019, as reported by Comscore. Upcoming films like “A Minecraft Movie” (April 4) and Marvel’s “Thunderbolts” (May 2) are anticipated to revitalize cinemas.

According to Comscore’s Dergarabedian, we can expect a significantly upbeat melody within a brief span of time.

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2025-03-23 18:48