Disney Reveals ‘Snow White’ Remake Is Set To Blow Its Budget

Disney has revealed that the cost of making its live action remake of Snow White had ballooned to $269.4 million (£217.7 million) by the end of 2023 putting the movie on course to blow its budget more than a year before it is released.

It casts a dark spell on the outlook for Disney's entertainment segment just as it was showing signs of improvement. For the past five years its bottom line has been dragged down by losses from the Disney+ streaming platform which finally reported its first profit earlier this year.

It coincided with the end of a string of bad luck at the box office as Disney currently occupies the top two spots on the ranking of this year's highest-grossing movies. The sequel to Disney’s most streamed movie of all time, Moana, is also set to hit theaters at the end of the month causing analysts to take a bullish outlook on the media giant despite it warning of a softening in demand at its domestic theme parks.

Disney reports its fourth quarter earnings today and analysts are expecting earnings per share to increase to $1.11, from $0.82 a year ago, while revenue is projected to rise to $22.49 billion from $21.24 billion. Snow White won't contribute to that until it is released in March next year. Clouds have already gathered over the movie as it has been blasted by critics who claim that Disney is trying to attract woke viewers.

The biggest bone of contention is the casting. The movie stars Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen while the title role went to West Side Story's Rachel Zegler, a Latina actress of Colombian descent whereas her counterpart in the 1937 animated original is described as having "skin as white as snow."

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It fueled a racist backlash against Zegler which was inflamed by her comments about the original fairytale. The actress caused an outcry by describing it as being "extremely dated when it comes to the ideas of women being in roles of power." She likened the heroic Prince Charming’s behaviour to that of a “stalker” and added that in the new film, Snow White "is not going to be saved by the prince and she’s not going to be dreaming about true love."

It disenchanted David Hand, whose father worked on the cartoon which won Walt Disney an honorary Oscar. Hand said that the duo "would be turning in their graves" as the original was made "with good taste."

He said it was a "disgrace" that Disney is "trying to do something new with something that was such a great success...They're making up new woke things and I’m just not into any of that." It seems that he isn't alone in thinking that.

The public got its first look at footage from the film in August this year and within just three weeks it became the most disliked teaser for a film trailer on YouTube with nearly a million dislikes compared to more than 68,000 likes. It came at a princely price.

Budgets of movies are usually a closely-guarded secret as studios combine the cost of them in their overall expenses and don't itemize how much they spent on each one. Movies made in the UK are exceptions to this.

They benefit from its Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit which gives them a cash reimbursement of up to 25.5% of the money they spend there. To qualify for the reimbursement, at least 10% of the production costs need to relate to activities in the UK. In order to demonstrate this to the government studios set up separate production companies in the UK for each movie they make.

The companies have code names so that they don’t raise attention with fans when filing for permits to film on location. The Disney subsidiary behind Snow White is called Hidden Heart Productions in a nod to the shape of the latch on the Evil Queen's jewellery box in the animated original.

Like most studios, Disney does not discuss the costs of individual pictures and did not respond to an opportunity to comment. It does not need to as the UK production companies are obliged to file financial statements showing everything from the total costs and the level of reimbursement to the number of staff on the payroll.

The latest filings for Hidden Heart Productions reveal that by December 31, 2023 Disney had already spent so much on Snow White that its "cost was was forecasted to be over the production budget."

The movie initially finished filming in July 2022 but extensive reshoots reportedly took place the following year when its budget bulged to $269.4 million. However, that was just the start of the story.

As we recently revealed in UK newspaper The Sun, Hidden Heart Productions received a $55.5 million (£44.9 million) reimbursement bringing Disney's net spending on Snow White down to $213.9 million. It had a magic touch as studios spend on local services such as security, catering and visual effects firms.

Earlier this year Disney announced that it plans to invest $5 billion over the next five years in films, television and streaming shows made in the UK and Europe. It follows $4.5 billion spent on production in the UK over the past five years which supported more than 32,000 jobs.

The financial statements reveal that Snow White peaked at 354 staff and total pay came to $29.6 million (£24.1 million). So, even if the film bombs at the box office at least the workers in the UK will have a happy ending.