Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, how high can a budget go? Disney’s live-action Snow White — which stars Rachel Zegler (West Side Story) in the title role opposite Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) as the Evil Queen envious of the fairest one of all — may be the most expensive one of all of the studio’s remakes when accounting for marketing and distribution costs. According to Variety, the re-imagining of 1937’s animated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs carries a production price tag of $240 million, making it one of the bigger-budgeted adaptations.
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For comparison’s sake, that’s on par with the budget of last summer’s The Little Mermaid, which surfaced with $569 million at the global box office against its reported $240 million budget.
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Only 2017’s Emma Watson-fronted Beauty and the Beast and 2019’s computer-generated remake of The Lion King cost more: Disney spent $255 million on the former and another $260 million on the latter, not including P&A (prints and advertising). The total cost of Lion King was $621 million, according to Deadline, which reported Disney’s net profit as $580 million after roaring to $1.65 billion at the global box office.
Snow White, which filmed in 2022 in Vancouver and Los Angeles before undergoing a round of reshoots earlier in 2024, boasts a bigger budget than the first live-action Disney Princess movie, 2015’s Cinderella (a modest $90 million).
2010’s Alice in Wonderland — the Tim Burton and Johnny Depp blockbuster that jump started Disney’s modern remakes after making a $1 billion — cost anywhere between $150—$200 million, while 2020’s Mulan came in at the $200 million mark. Movies that were made for under $200 million include 2016’s The Jungle Book ($175 million), 2019’s Dumbo ($170 million), 2019’s Aladdin ($183 million), and 2022’s Pinocchio ($150 million), which went straight to Disney+. 2021’s Cruella cost just $100 million, and the 2019 Lady and the Tramp remake, which also debuted as a Disney+ original movie, cost $60 million.
The general rule is that tentpole movies need to make 2.5 times their production budgets to break even. For Snow White, that number would be $600 million — a number that may be out of reach, considering The Little Mermaid grossed $569 million after splashing into theaters over Memorial Day weekend. A live-action Disney remake hasn’t topped $600 million since the pre-pandemic summer of 2019, when Aladdin and The Lion King earned a respective $1.05 billion and $1.65 billion globally.
Disney will next open Mufasa: The Lion King against Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on Dec. 20, followed by the live-action Snow White on March 21, 2025, and the live-action Lilo & Stitch on May 23. The studio has also started production on the Moana remake that stars Dwayne Johnson as the live-action Maui.
Marc Webb (The Amazing Spider-Man) directs Snow White from a screenplay by Greta Gerwig (Barbie) and Erin Cressida Wilson (The Girl on the Train). Marc Platt (La La Land) and Jared LeBoff (Wicked) produce the musical re-imagining, featuring all-new original songs from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Disney’s Aladdin and The Greatest Showman).