Not Every Movie Needs to Win the Internet

I’ve been watching a lot of movies lately, and one that everyone is talking about is Snow White (2025). In terms of box office performance, the movie is a clear flop.

At the time of writing, estimates suggest Disney spent between $240M and $350M, while the global box office sits around $183.7M. That obviously doesn’t look good. But was the failure entirely because the movie was bad, especially considering its target audience?

I’m inclined to think part of the problem was actually timing. Let me explain.

Disclaimer: Any criticisms I list below are not meant to attack anyone’s beliefs or opinions. I’m simply summarizing common complaints. Many of them are valid, but I’m not here to argue for or against them. I’m trying to look at the bigger picture.

The Dwarves Controversy
One of the biggest early complaints was Disney’s decision to use CGI and reimagine the dwarves as magical forest creatures rather than traditional characters. This led to criticism that Disney was erasing representation for actors with dwarfism. Ironically, this change may have been a response to past critiques — particularly by Peter Dinklage — but it ended up upsetting a different group of people.

Snow White Herself
Another source of controversy was the casting of Rachel Zegler as Snow White. Some critics pointed out that she’s not ethnically white, which conflicted with the “white as snow” description from the original fairy tale. This sparked…