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Credit: DisneyThis weekend, Disney’s live-action Snow White (2025) hit another terrible milestone. After dropping 66 percent in its second weekend, the largest drop for any Disney live-action film ever, the Rachel Zegler film came in fourth at the box office with just over $6 million.
To date, Snow White has earned just over $168 million on a production budget of $240 million. At this rate, Disney is expected to lose hundreds of millions on the film.
And despite all that, Disney got even more bad news about its live-action flop. An analysis by The Guardian found that Snow White was the film that created the most pollution out of any film made in the United Kingdom since 2019. (Insert your own joke here).
With the British government giving 25 percent tax breaks to films made in the country, all films must complete a detailed accounting for their actions while on set. Among the many things required by the British government is an accounting of the amount of pollution that the film creates.
The films must account for emissions directly from the set, emissions from the electricity used by the set, and indirect emissions from the third-party vendors to the set.
When The Guardian examined 250 films by The Walt Disney Company in the United Kingdom, it found that Snow White created the most pollution. The live-action Little Mermaid (2024) came in second.
The United Kingdom gave Disney approximately $57 million in tax rebates for filming Snow White in the country, which will help to offset the film’s massive losses at the box office.
Snow White Controversies
When it was announced that Zegler, who is half Colombian, would take on the role of Snow White, there was an immediate backlash. Some labeled Disney “woke” for changing the main character to be more inclusive. The “woke” label stayed with Disney after it was revealed that Disney had replaced the seven dwarfs with seven “magical creatures.”
Disney delayed the release of Snow White from 2024 to 2025 to reshoot scenes and bring back the dwarfs. As a result, the film’s spending ballooned to over $270 million, not including publicity spending.
After getting the role, Zegler did not help to tamp down the “woke” controversies. She criticized the original film, calling it “weird” and Prince Charming a “stalker.”
More recently, she said that she hopes Donald Trump and his supporters “never know peace,” which they took as a threat. Zegler has since apologized for those remarks.
Disney also scaled back the film’s premieres in London and Los Angeles to address some controversies. However, based on early reviews, Disney appears to have a solid movie in its hands.
However, since the movie hit theaters, it has been an absolute disaster and continues to worsen every passing day for The Walt Disney Company.