ABOUT "Snow White“wrote that she had record low ratings on IMDb, and on social networks they ridiculed the leading actress for calling the project “the No. 1 film in the world.” Which problems were real, and what did the haters come up with? And what common misconceptions about cinema can be cleared up using this example?
This text was originally published on the Kinopoisk website.
Fire until the premiere
The film began to be criticized on the Internet even at the production stage. The most active dissatisfaction expressed regarding the decision to cast an artist with Colombian roots in the role of the title character, whose skin in the original is “as white as snow.” For some users, this casting move caused a racist reaction against Zegler. Other criticisms came from the actress's comments about the project. She, for example, spokethat in the remake the main character will be stronger than in the original, and in one of Zegler’s interviews stated: "The reality is that the cartoon was made 85 years ago, and therefore it is extremely outdated when it comes to talking about women being empowered and what their purpose is in this world." In addition, according to the actress, the prince in the cartoon “literally pursued» Snow White. Some counted, that Zegler humiliated the classic cartoon.
Not everyone liked the actress’ political views either. Under one of his tweets about watching the Snow White trailer, Zegler left replay: “And always remember: freedom for Palestine.” The actress claims that she adheres to pro-Palestinian position from 2021, even before attacks Hamas on Israel in 2023 and the beginning wars. Some activists called for boycott the film because of the participation of Israeli Gal Gadot in it. In addition, after the US presidential elections, Zegler wrote on her social networks “Fuck Donald Trump” and added: “May Trump supporters, Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace.” However, the actress quickly apologized for her comments.
Heated debate called and news about how in the remake will look seven dwarves. The New York Times explained, that due to leaked photos from the set, which were published by the tabloid The Daily Mail, and sloppy reactions Disney responded to this leak (studio representatives denied involvement in the photographs and then confirmed their authenticity), many made the erroneous conclusion that “politically correct gnomes” would appear in the film. The viral photos showed people of different skin colors, genders and heights. However, according to data The Hollywood Reporter, director Marc Webb wanted the characters to be CGI from the start, based on the original images from the 1937 cartoon.
I haven’t watched it, but I condemn it
At the time of writing on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 254 reviews from critics, the remake received 40% freshness rating with an average rating of 5.2 out of 10, meaning most professional film reviewers did not like it very much. Many journalists praised Zegler and the songs, but criticized the film for its visual style. “Thanks to Rachel Zegler's powerful performance in Snow White, you're unlikely to grumble, but the film's careless treatment of the source material and some ridiculous stylistic decisions will also not please everyone,” reads the consensus description of the film on the portal.
Viewer freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes It happens two types - from users who confirmed their viewing with a movie ticket, and from everyone who simply decided to rate it. Users with tickets have a Snow White rating made up 72% with a rating of 3.9 out of 5 (“Disney's Snow White may not be the most faithful representation, but its good-natured song and spirit will have you singing along”). Those who did not confirm viewing have only 19% with a rating of 1.5/5. The number of viewers who, according to Rotten Tomatoes, bought a movie ticket before scoring is at least 2,500, and the total number of those who gave a rating is at least 10 times higher. That is, their ratings on Rotten Tomatoes were mainly given by users who did not go to the cinema.
Another picture on IMDb: as of May 14 there at "Snow White" indicated score 1.6 out of 10 points with 353,000 votes, of which 90.0% are ones. Because of this in social networks And Media numerous messages, as if the film received a record low rating from users of this site and topped the list of worst films according to the portal.
Thanks to archived copies pages of the film, you can trace the approximate change in both the rating and the number of voters. Moreover, since March 27, the platform warned, which captures the signs review bombing, that is, a deliberate underestimation. “Our rating engine has detected unusual voting activity for this project,” reads a disclaimer on the Snow White page.
A similar warning can be found on the page “Little Mermaids” - another Disney remake, which had a black actress playing the main character and which also drew criticism of a similar plan. They tried to lower the rating of “The Little Mermaid”, but in this case the disclaimer on IMDb was supplemented with a clarification: “To maintain the reliability of our rating system, an alternative calculation of the value was used.” A little more about this system told on the corresponding page of the site, but the exact method is not disclosed. The Little Mermaid currently has a score of 7.2 out of 10.
Other signs point to a campaign to downgrade Snow White. Worldwide distribution started March 19, and in the US it was released two days later. Thus, in about a week and a half, the remake received about 300,000 ratings on IMDb. It is difficult to establish the exact number of viewers of Snow White, but by the beginning of May the film's worldwide box office receipts made up a modest $200 million, from which we can conclude that the audience was not very interested in it. This ratio of the total box office and the abnormal number of ratings raises questions. For comparison, here's an update on a few recent family-friendly Hollywood productions:
It can be seen that children's and family films, which were released much earlier and received receipts many times larger than Snow White, still have not scored 300,000 ratings on IMDb, and the remake with Zegler took less than two weeks to do so. This also highly likely indicates that the majority of users who rated the film 1 point were unlikely to have watched the film.
Worst movie in IMDb history?
IN rating The worst films according to IMDb include full-length theatrical films that received ratings of at least 10,000 users. Short films, television films and documentaries are not taken into account. Snow White appeared on this list on March 24th 13th positions, but then disappeared. This is likely due to anomalies that were detected by the algorithms.
By default, participants in the rating of the worst films are ranked according to a special formula, and therefore a picture with scores higher than the one occupying second place may appear in first place. If you select sorting According to user ratings, it turns out that there are several films there with lower scores than Snow White.
To sum it up, the film was review-bombed and that the ratings for the Snow White remake did not reflect the true reaction of audiences. This film has never topped the IMDb anti-rating and has not received the lowest user rating in the history of the platform.
No. 1 movie in the world?
Some commentators on social networks mocked over Zegler's announcement that Snow White was the No. 1 film in the world. On March 24, the actress actually published a photo from the filming of the remake and wrote* that Snow White became the No. 1 film in the world. On the same day publication on this topic appeared on social networks of Walt Disney Studios, where a few days later released another similar post.
In fact, statements that your film became the first in the world if it received the largest box office receipts at the global box office over the weekend, is a common Hollywood practice among studios and famous actors. And he really was! According to media reports, the remake with Zegler earned its first weekend (March 21–23 in the US). $42.2 million on the American market and a little more ($43.9 million) in the rest of the world, bringing its total to $86.1 million and propelling Snow White into the weekend's top spot. The first film in the world can easily become both a critically acclaimed hit and a financial failure with low ratings (if, for example, there were no strong competitors in the same week).
And finally, is this the worst Disney movie in years?
In Russian-language posts and articles, many options for the estimated budget were given: $209 million, $240 million, $250 million, $270 million, $300 million. Authors of some publications stated, that the cost could be much higher, and the previous figures - “someone's joke", after all, they spent more than $350 million on the movie. As a result, appeared news that the final budget of the new “Snow White” has become known, which amounted to a whopping $410 million. In this regard, there is an opinion on the Internet that the film will either become, or has already become, the biggest failure for Disney.
However, studios rarely report official budgets for blockbusters, so most often we only know the approximate costs of tentpoles from specialized publications and journalists, whose estimates may vary. "Snow White" was no exception: at Disney didn't comment publications about the budget.
The figures are taken from previous publications: in 2023, the British tabloid The Daily Mail stated, that $330 million was spent on the film. Then in 2024, more reputable media reportedthat “Snow White” cost more than $300 million. About the cost of the picture at $240 million at the end of 2024 told Variety magazine, which already in the spring of 2025 mentioned, that production costs amounted to over $250 million. In turn, Deadline claimed, as if the cost of the film was $270 million - this amount came from articles Forbes in November 2024, which concluded from the studio's financial reports that by the end of 2023 the cost of the remake had risen to $269.4 million. This budget does not take into account the costs of reshoots, which passed in the summer of 2024, but Forbes noted that the main filming took place in the UK, where the studio received reimbursement of $55.5 million and reduced net expenses to $213.9 million.
On March 23, 2025, The New York Times published a story in which mentionedthat the cost of the tape was at least $350 million. However, there was an important clarification: So much money was allegedly spent on filming and advertising Snow White. Previously in the same newspaper wrotethat for various reasons the budget increased from $210 million to $270 million, which was influenced by safety protocols to combat the pandemic, fire on the site, strike actors in 2023 and Gadot's health complications due to pregnancy.
March 31st on Deadline the amount was announced even higher - $410 million; the budget consisted of production costs of $270 million and advertising costs of $111 million, and another $29 million was spent on residual payments and other expenses. As a result, experts had different estimates of the cost of the remake, but were unanimous that “Snow White” would bring losses to the company. But how much? According to the same Deadline estimates, losses will amount to about $115 million, if the film can gross $225 million (a little less so far). This forecast is based on estimated revenue of $295 million, which is generated from global box office ($101 million), home media sales ($62 million), streaming and TV shows ($130 million) and merch sales ($2 million). It is noted that the list does not take into account future income from theme parks and cruises.
Losses of $115 million are a lot, but far from a record. According to calculations of the same Deadline, last year'sJoker: Madness for two" And "Furiosa: The Mad Max Chronicles» from Warner Bros. brought losses of more than $144 million and $119 million, respectively. The year before, Disney was no better off because, according to data the same publication, the projects turned out to be unprofitable “Captain Marvel 2"(–$237 million), "Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Fate"(–$143 million), "Heart's desire"(–$131 million) and "Haunted Mansion"(–$117 million). And in 2022 the biggest failure turned out to be a Disney cartoon "Strange world"(–$197.4 million).
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Instagram, is an extremist organization; its activities and symbols are prohibited in Russia.
Cover photo: Walt Disney Studios
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