Disney has experienced both ups and downs with its live-action remakes. Snow White is one of the latest animated movies from the House of Mouse to get the live-action treatment, and it struggled at the box office. After poor reviews leading up to the release in March, it only pulled in $87.2 million in the US and Canada and $205.5 million worldwide. The film was released on the company’s streaming service, Disney+, last Wednesday and has been one of the most-watched movies on the platform.
Snow White Finds Success On Streaming
Snow White isn’t just one of the most-watched movies on Disney+ over the past five days. It is the most-watched movie. It already is topping the charts in the month of June despite only being on the platform for less than a week. Disney+ isn’t the only place where there has been a surge of interest. Fandango at Home revealed it was second during the week of May 18 for digital rentals and sales. Moral of the story? People want to see this movie and are making an effort to do so.
Despite the Rotten Tomatoes score of 39%, people have praised Rachel Zegler’s performance as the titular character and loved the updates the studio made for the remake. The issues at the box office likely stemmed from the myriad of controversies surrounding this movie. There were three or four different off-camera issues that led to Disney banning the press from the premiere, seemingly cutting their losses and moving on. However, this is a trend we are starting to see with many movies.
Is Streaming Hurting The Box Office?
I’ve written a few articles for the site on movies that flopped that went on to become streaming hits. It’s becoming a trend that studios are having issues getting people out to the theaters. It isn’t that people don’t want to see the movies. They just don’t want to pay to see them in theaters when they know they can wait and see them on a streaming service they already pay for. I’m one of those people for Snow White. I wanted to see the movie, but my funds (and time) are limited. I’m okay waiting a few months and then catching it on Disney+.
It’s something Disney especially has had an issue with. They need to wait longer to put the movies on their streaming service. If I only have to wait for three months, what’s my incentive to spend big money at a theater? There are some movies I’m going to see on the big screen, but others I can wait for, like Snow White. It will be interesting to see how all movie studios combat this new world of streaming moving forward.
Final Thoughts
It’s great to see Snow White get some love from the fans. While the movie had its flaws, there were also some really jaw-dropping parts. The costumes and larger set pieces brought new life to the 1937 original movie. Will it continue its streaming dominance throughout the summer?
