“The Biggest Bust in Movie History” — Fans Have Thoughts on Disney’s Most Controversial Live-Action Movie to Date

There are few topics more controversial amongst Disney fans and general audiences alike right now than Disney’s series of live-action remakes. While some of the films have fared well at the box office, all have garnered… mixed reactions from movie-goers.

Perhaps none of the films has caused as much strife as 2025’s Snow White. The Marc Webb-directed film has seen controversy stem from changes made to the source material, the film’s look and visual effects, and comments — both related to and completely independent of the film from star Rachel Zegler. Upon the film’s release, it would massively underperform at the box office.

The controversy regarding Zegler and the film began with the announcement of the West Side Story alum’s casting. Some argued that the Latina actress should not be playing the titular heroine, as the character is described as having “skin as white as snow.” The “controversy” thrust Zegler into the midst of the ongoing “culture wars.”

On the heels of the kerfuffle over her casting, Zegler’s outspoken comments about the film and its story also attracted some negative attention. The actress spoke about some of the changes to the live-action adaption, saying, ”There’s a big focus [in the original] on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird! So we didn’t do that this time.” She added that the original film was “extremely dated when it comes to the ideas of women being in roles of power” and that “People are making these jokes about ours being the PC Snow White, where it’s like, yeah, it is — because it needed that.”

Despite that fact that, as film critic Anna Smith put it, “Zegler pointed out that times and attitudes have changed, and that the new Snow White has been adapted for the current age. This is the case with many remakes and reboots, many of which do not make the headlines with comments about ‘woke’ culture”, the comments rankled some, who claimed that Zegler was “disrespecting Disney tradition” and “trashing” the original film.

Beyond the film, the actress was also maligned for expressing her political opinions as well. In the summer of 2024, she faced backlash from some corners for adding “and always remember, free Palestine” to a tweet thanking fans for viewing the film’s trailer. Later on in the year, she said that she hoped that “Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace” after the 2024 United States Presidential election.

While Zegler would go on to offer an apology for the latter comments, some have still attributed the film’s box office “failure” to the actress despite the fact that the film received mixed-at-best reviews from critics. For example, Jonah Platt — the son of Snow White producer Marc Platt — wrote in a since-deleted social media post, that Zegler had “dragged her personal politics” into the film’s promotional campaign and that “her actions clearly hurt the film’s box office.”

Some social media users also haven’t been kind to the film. On X (formerly Twitter) @ColeTimmons1979 referred to the film bluntly, asking if it was the “biggest bust in movie history.”

Snow White?? Ouch. Biggest bust in movie history?

— Cole Timmons (@ColeTimmons1979) April 7, 2025

However, not all social media commentary on the film was negative. X user @AshleyCarter1 wrote “Snow White is pretty good. Not the best Disney live-action remake, but it has a lot of DNA from the original animated film as well as some changes that mostly work. Rachel Zegler is great and shines in the musical numbers. The CGI characters took some getting used to.”

Snow White is pretty good. Not the best Disney live-action remake, but it has a lot of DNA from the original animated film as well as some changes that mostly work. Rachel Zegler is great and shines in the musical numbers. The CGI characters took some getting used to. pic.twitter.com/Mieg4ROXBZ

— Ashley Carter (@AshleyLCarter1) March 19, 2025

Further social media users pointed out that it seemed like the film was the victim of “review bombing”, where users will spam negative reviews of a piece of content in order to skew its rating on sites like IMDB.

I know anyone with half a brain knows what's going on here, but I'd still like to note that Snow White currently has more 1 ratings (229k) than Mufasa: The Lion King has total ratings (53k) despite the latter having been out for 3 months longer and making 5x more worldwide so far https://t.co/iBySg436XJ pic.twitter.com/KVxDPdAoXf

— Jonathan (@jonathanmb32) March 30, 2025

The reaction to Disney’s most recent live-action adaption Snow White has been… split, to put it VERY mildly. Stay tuned to AllEars for more coverage of Disney’s cinematic offerings.

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Have you had the chance to check out the new Snow White for yourself? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below!