'Snow White' Flop Blamed on Star's Left-Wing Views

By James Morley III | Thursday, 27 March 2025 11:13 AM EDT

The feminist retelling of "Snow White" flopped over the weekend, causing many industry insiders to place most of the blame on the film's young star and her left-wing views.

Disney's live action update of the classic "Snow White" premiered in 4,200 screens across the U.S. over weekend, pulling in a lukewarm $42 million against an estimated $250 million production budget.

Controversy began when Rachel Zegler, the film's star, spoke candidly on social media about her antipathy to the original story and the idea that a woman would need to be rescued by a man.

Then, in 2024, Zegler expressed her contempt for about half of the U.S. by offering her take on the election of President Donald Trump, posting: "F*** Donald Trump" and "May Trump supporters never know peace."

Zegler, 23, then expressed her views on the Middle East, posting, "And always remember, free Palestine" when promoting the film's trailer, a message that rubbed her Israeli co-star Gal Gadot the wrong way.

Variety quoted one industry insider on the Zegler controversy who said, "She didn't understand the repercussions of her actions as far as what that meant for the film, for Gal, for anyone."

Over the weekend, Jonah Platt, son of the film's producer Marc Platt, took to social media to blast Zegler, writing: "Yeah, my dad, the producer of enormous piece of Disney IP with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, had to leave his family to fly across the country to reprimand his 20 year old employee for dragging her personal politics into the middle of promoting the movie for which she signed a multi-million dollar contract to get paid and do publicity for. This is called adult responsibility and accountability. And her actions clearly hurt the film's box office."

Platt did not mention any of the film's other issues and put the blame squarely on Zegler instead of the story, remake fatigue, the questionable CGI, and the controversy surrounding the dwarf casting.

Worldwide, the film has grossed $92 million as of Thursday. When marketing and other expenses are factored in, the Marc Webb-directed film will likely need to earn at least $500 million to break even.