Disney would love nothing more than for Rachel Zegler to take the fall for Snow White bombing at the box office. To have spent so much money and see a movie hit with so many scandals at once seems like a disaster for the Mouse House.
The truth? Zegler did not invent her ideas about Snow White being outdated and old-fashioned. She did not reimagine this disaster. She was hired as a living virtue signal for Disney to expand their Disney princess canon to include women of color. It’s as simple as that. Everyone goes along with it because they don’t want to be seen as racists and because if they say anything negative against the movie they will be called racists.
And who wants the Disney princesses to only be white? It isn’t representative of the country and Disney wants everyone to feel included (unless you voted for Trump, then go away – oh but still pay to see our movie or we will call you racists).
This is the game Hollywood has been playing for a while now. It’s not on them, it’s on you. You are the problem. No one will talk about this because it’s too sticky of an issue. But the truth is that people like to see themselves represented on screen. That’s how they connect with the story. When you sell the majority of a film where a person of color is in the lead, that message is “be respectful,” and while for some, that is a satisfying way to watch a movie, for most people, it can feel inorganic, like homework.
For Disney, it’s a win-win. A bomb means proof that they were trying to do the right thing, and if America wasn’t so racist, the movie would have made money. They don’t want to be blamed for all the white Disney princesses. They want to be seen as good because when you have everything—wealth, power, privilege—the one thing you need that money can’t buy is absolution, redemption, and status inside utopia.
And yet, I don’t think Zegler should be blamed. While her comments didn’t help, they certainly did not sink the already sinking ship. On the Right, that is what they believe, that people didn’t show up because of Zegler’s comments. As in:
That would work out well for Disney, even as their shareholders voted to preserve DEI and ESG practices and continue to punish websites by not advertising on those deemed ideologically non-compliant. But the truth? They and they alone have done significant damage to their brand – they know it. Everyone knows it. They are propped up by activists who have infiltrated every corner of the industry and should all be fired, DOGE-style (spoiler alert: they won’t be). Journalists are too afraid to say anything lest they be cast out of utopia. It’s the Emperor’s New Clothes every time they make a movie and dump it to a public that has turned away.
But by all accounts, Zegler was the only good thing in the movie. And, unless you are a YouTuber or plugged into the online world on the Right, you wouldn’t even know what Zegler said to begin with. The mainstream media, never mind the trades, rarely publish anything negative.
I find it implausible that they would not show up because Zegler was off-putting in her interviews. That would account for some of the decline in viewership. No doubt, some people didn’t go because they don’t like her but that is nowhere near enough to account for what will be a catastrophe for the Disney brand, nevermind the money.
Who Was This Movie For?
The target audience for this movie should have been families. It looks more like it was aimed at your average women’s studies major (if that major even still exists) at, say, Smith. Who thought girl-bossing Snow White was a good idea? No handsome prince because one of the richest and most powerful corporate monopolies in the world wants to send the message that they support socialism. So the Prince is transformed into a Bernie bro. Who wants to see that?
I’ll let you in a little secret about us girls — all of us girls, except freshman women at Brandeis, have rescue fantasies. We all want to be rescued by a handsome prince. That’s not Disney’s fault. It is what most every girl dreams about, which is why it resonated so deeply in the Disney films. Think about the 1930s — ever heard of a thing called the Great Depression? You know why people went to movies like Snow White? To escape the misery of poverty and despair.
She is the embodiment of purity and beauty, not because she is white but because her soul is pure. That’s why the animals are so attracted to her. She is seeking TRUE LOVE’s kiss, and if that happens to come with a hot guy and a mansion, so be it. It is the same message of Pretty Woman, another movie people love.
Let women be women. Let women have their fantasies. Let us enjoy life. Why does everything have to be an exhausting, agonizing struggle session? THAT is why Snow White bombed. WHO GIVES A CRAP? Tell me, who? I’ll tell you who: the people at the top. And I hate to break it to you, but they’re all rich white men. Yes, that’s right. Some women, mostly men. They need absolution, so they use people of color as shields.
They did it on Netflix with Emilia Perez, and they do it on Disney. They want the magic mirror on the wall to say who is the fairest of them all: you ARE Hollywood. It’s YOU. They’re the ones who have to send out the Huntsman (social justice fanatics on social media) to kill the beauty of art that Snow White is. Kill it so the industry can now be the fairest of them all because they are the WOKEST of them all.
And by “woke” I don’t mean the Black community waking up to systemic racism. I mean white people on the Left and at the top waking up to Black people waking up to systemic racism. PLEASE, they cry, absolve us of our sins of wealth and privilege so we can be the fairest of them all.
Go ahead and blame Rachel Zegler all you want. How CONVENIENT that would be. But it ain’t the truth.
My good buddies at Film Threat think this could end Zegler’s career:
I don’t think it will because, despite starring in Snow White, they will never sink someone who believes everything they do. This only goes one way. Where Gina Carano was fired and her career destroyed over a harmless joke on social media, Zegler may not star in another big movie like this, but she’ll do just fine. If anything, her platform will only get bigger.
But that won’t be true for others involved. The producer and the director will take the hit. This comment was deleted but it illustrates how many of those involved will have to take the hit instead of Zegler.
I would be a hypocrite if I went along with this, however. Plenty of people could accuse me of the exact same thing, not considering other people’s ability to make money. And while I understand that, I don’t think anyone pulled Zegler aside beforehand and told her what to say and what not to say. It would, therefore, have been her decision whether or not what she had to say was important enough to risk her career.
But the truth is that she’s young. She’s someone who thinks for herself and is outspoken. How could I, of all people, ever condemn her for that even if I disagree with what she says.
It bombed because the movie is bad.
The Rotten Tomatoes score, for one thing, is owned by Fandango. If you plan to buy tickets to see a movie that will cost a LOT of money and you see that score, you’re likely to skip it. That’s reason number one.
We have been conditioned to spend our money this way: We look at the rating and the score and then decide. I hate to give film critics that much power, and I don’t think even they could have saved Snow White, but as with Zegler, it was one factor in a combination of factors that brought the ship down.
One Bomb After Another
Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie shouldn’t be called One Battle After Another. It should be called One Bomb After Another and should be about how Hollywood—DISNEY INCLUDED—has DESTROYED ITS BRAND.
It’s a good thing Zegler made it clear to the public beforehand that Snow White was a “feminist reboot” because at least she spared people the bait-and-switch, a thing I have come to hate about almost every Hollywood movie now.
Take Twisters, for instance. That movie didn’t bomb. By today’s standards, it did fairly well. It made $267 with a budget of $155 million. It would have made, I think, upwards of $600 million if they’d made Glen Powell the hero or at least added a kiss at the end. But they couldn’t even give us that. It had to be a girl boss story aimed at 20-year-old Oberlin students.
Here are just some of the recent major bombs:
Joker Folie a Deux – $58 million / budget $200 million
Horizon – $29 million / budget $100 million
Gladiator II – $172 million / budget $310 million
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny $174 million / estimated budget $300 million
Mickey 17 – $40 million / budget $118 million
Madame Web – $43 million / budget $80 million
Alien Romulus $105 million / budget reportedly $80 million
The Fall Guy – $92 million / budget reportedly $125 million
Civil War – $68 million / budget $50 million
Transformers One – $59 million / budget $75 million
Saturday Night – $9 million / budget $25 million
The Book of Clarence $6 million / budget $40 million
The Apprentice $4 million / budget $16 million
And true, they all do the pivot to global box office to save themselves the embarrassment of the bottom dropping out of the business. At some point, they will need to face facts about what they’ve become and why they can’t draw a crowd. Gimmicks won’t work. The movies have to be better, good enough to gain back the public’s trust.
When audiences get what they want and expect, that delivers hits. Take Moana 2. They didn’t mess with the formula. People knew what to expect. It made $460 domestically and over a billion worldwide. Inside Out 2, same thing. They knew what to expect and what they’d be getting. It made $652 domestically and over a billion worldwide.
Here is the ugly truth: Hollywood is staffed by people who make movies that make them look good. They don’t consider their audience anymore. If they did, they would make movies people actually want to see. No one wants a feminist reboot of Snow White. NO ONE. Except freshman women at Bryn Mawr.
This problem is bigger than Snow White, bigger than Disney, even bigger than the Oscars. The whole system has to chang.
