Hollywood’s Box Office Woes Continue: ‘Snow White’ Stumbles Overseas With $44 Million, Robert De Niro’s ‘Alto Knights’ Bombs With $1.8 Million

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Disney leaders may find themselves identifying more with grumblers like Grumpy or Bashful, rather than the cheerful character named Happy, following the rather sleepy performance of “Snow White” at the box office.

As a passionate cinephile, I found myself eagerly anticipating the studio’s live-action take on the 1937 classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.” However, the global box office debut fell slightly short of my hopes, raking in approximately $44.3 million across 51 markets. The United Kingdom led the pack with a strong opening of $5.1 million, followed closely by Mexico with $4.1 million and France with $3 million. Unfortunately, the film didn’t fare as well in China, where it stumbled with just $900,000 in earnings, leaving me and many others feeling a bit embarrassed for the movie.

Snow White,” featuring Rachel Zegler as Snow White and Gal Gadot as the Wicked Queen, generated $43 million domestically and $87.3 million globally in its opening weekend. Despite initial expectations of a $100 million global debut, it remains to be seen if the movie will prove to be a hit or a miss in upcoming weekends. Disney invested over $250 million on this major production, excluding marketing costs, so the film needs to maintain its presence in cinemas worldwide to recoup its investment. Ideally, the final earnings should resemble those of “The Lion King” (from last December, with $716 million) instead of the 2019 live-action “Dumbo” remake ($353 million); both films had modest openings akin to “Snow White.

Hi there, fellow newbie! The R-rated mob drama “The Alto Knights,” starring Robert De Niro, underperformed significantly in international markets, earning just $1.8 million across eight countries such as the U.K., Italy, France, and Spain. No market surpassed the half a million dollar mark, suggesting a disappointing performance for a big-studio film. The Warner Bros. production, which had an estimated budget of around $45 million, also struggled in North America, pulling in only $3.2 million during its opening weekend. Critics and audiences alike showed little enthusiasm for “The Alto Knights,” where De Niro plays dual roles as two infamous New York crime bosses.

Following Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17,” the latest film from Warner Bros., has been another box office disappointment for the studio. Predictions suggest that it will lose between $75 million and $80 million during its theatrical release. Over the weekend, “Mickey 17” surpassed the $100 million mark at the global box office. To date, the movie has made $70 million internationally and a total of $180 million worldwide. However, with a production budget of $118 million, “Mickey 17” needs to earn an additional $275 million to $300 million just to break even.

The issues mentioned, along with other underperforming films such as “Captain America: Brave New World” from Marvel, have negatively impacted Hollywood’s box office earnings in 2025 thus far. However, the successful Chinese blockbuster “Ne Zha 2,” which has amassed a staggering $2.08 billion worldwide, stands as the fifth-highest grossing movie of all time. As anticipated, attendance numbers are expected to rise with the upcoming releases of highly anticipated films like “A Minecraft Movie” from Warner Bros. and Marvel’s “Thunderbolts.”

According to senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian, with ‘Minecraft’ and May bringing on a blockbuster summer movie season, it seems like the movie theater market is now moving in a positive direction.

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2025-03-23 21:16