For a long time now there has been rampant speculation over the troubled Disney Studios production that is its live action remake of the classic “Snow White”. Beleaguered by a number of factors it was a hotly anticipated event when it was released weeks ago to dismal returns. While a number of factors contributed to this demise, there was one primary negative influence cited – lead actress Rachel Zegler.
The studio faced other issues to be sure. There were delays made due to the actors/writers strike, the product saw fit to recast the seven dwarfs characters not once, but twice (and settled on a disturbing display of CGI monstrosities) and the decision to drop some classic music did not sit well. But above all of that their choice to play Snow White was the glaring issue, as Ms. Zegler developed into a PR nightmare for Disney.
In many early interviews, Zegler dumped on the original film, the one that literally built Walt Disney into a Hollywood institution, deriding the storyline as outmoded and even referring to the Prince Charming character as a “stalker”, and an element that could have been edited out of the film entirely. Behold this montage of her statements and imagine the reactions from studio executives.
Rachel Zegler is single-handedly destroying this movie.
— 🎀Tuggs🎀✝️ (@thattugglife) August 11, 2023
My TikTok feed is full of ppl on all sides posting about her holier-than-thou crappy attitude is not okay & Snow doesn’t need to be modern.
It’s impressive how many people she’s turned against seeing Snow White.
Bravo👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/EUdli8mh1v
As if this was not enough, Zegler saw a need to inject her political views into the process. When the first trailer was released, she promoted it on her social media and felt she had to add a tagline to her posts: “Free Palestine”. Then, after the November elections, she delivered a lengthy post vulgarly insulting Donald Trump and his voters. Only by this time, just months ahead of the release date, the studio saw a need to step in and stifle Zegler’s public comments. It was far too late. Ahead of the release we saw the projections for the opening weekend continually revised downward, and it managed to perform even worse. The following weekends show no recovery, and the studio stands to lose a fortune on this film.
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Rachel displays all the attributes of a prototypical drama kid; she behaves with a level of entitlement and hyper-emotional displays with no foundation. This debacle stands out because the actress has a severely elevated sense of self-importance, but it is entirely unearned. A look at her brief output in Hollywood shows she has not delivered results in her career. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Let’s look at the numbers.
West Side Story
The highly touted musical remake from Steven Spielberg was an entire bomb, opening with a meager $10 million debut, and never breaking $40 million domestically, with a $76m global take. With the shooting budget and marketing costs Disney needed to see nearly $300 million to start profiting.
Shazam: Fury of the Gods
A steep drop from the first film, which was a small hit for Warners-DC, this one never left the gate. It’s global take came in below the $125 million budget, meaning the studio was looking at well over $100 million in losses here.
The Hunger Games: Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes
This was a prequel following the initial trilogy in the franchise and may have performed well enough, if not up to the blockbuster status of the original films. With heavy marketing and a mid-range budget for the franchise of $100 million it is likely the global box office of $350 million was at or near break even, meaning ultimately the studio Lionsgate saw profits in the secondary licensing markets. So possibly a success on some levels, but not a smash hit by any measurement.
Y2K
An utterly overlooked and forgotten attempt at retro horror, this modestly budgeted effort could not earn the slightest interest this past December. With only a $15 million budget not much was needed for success, but Zegler’s name could not even pull this movie to the $5 million plateau before it disappeared.
Spellbound
Zegler provided the voice for the lead character in this animated fantasy. The film spent years in development and more years in distribution limbo. Initially set for a 2019 theatrical release from Paramount, it endured many title changes, rewrites, and director switches. Production began in earnest in 2020, and the rights were bought by Apple+, with Zegler and others finally cast in 2022. Then Netflix struck a new deal with the production company, and the film appeared on the streaming platform last Thanksgiving. It was a modest hit for a week or two before fading from memory.
Snow White
After industry analysts continually revised opening projections down from an $85 million debut, the days ahead of the premiere ranged a dismal $45-55 million opening—and the movie missed even that mark. A dismal $42.2 debut was followed by a -66% drop in week-2, beaten by a Jason Statham violent potboiler action romp. The film will not crest the $100 million mark domestically, and Disney has to be facing about a $200 million loss on this venture.
Rachel Zegler has been operating with a mistaken belief that she has arrived and is above criticism. The reality is that she is still in the nascent portion of her career, and she needs to show some form of proof that she is seen as a bankable performer. To this point, her track record is a shambles, and her record of being a problematic component is not going to broaden her opportunities.
Producers with a risky property might consider her history of mouthing off to heighten those risks, and looking at her red tape resume will only make the investors even more hesitant. Currently, Zegler has no motion picture projects listed ahead of her schedule.
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