Not even the arrival of a new Disney tentpole could get the 2025 domestic box office out of its financial blues. While past March's have been graced by $100+ million domestic launches for Beauty and the Beast and Alice in Wonderland, March 2025 was anchored by Snow White. The new Marc Webb-directed remake opened to only $43 million, down 4% from the opening weekend of the last live-action Disney Animation remake to go bust in March, Dumbo. That debut was also beneath Snow White & The Huntsman's $56.2 million domestic bow from 13 years ago. Furthermore, this debut was also only $7 million ahead of 2010's Robin Hood's domestic bow and behind Tangled’s three-day debut. Remember, that 2010 animated gem burned off demand with a Wednesday launch!
Toxic folks online will blame this opening on “wokeism” or the profoundly talented Rachel Zegler just existing (someone please get her and Ariana DaBose into real movies fast, their talents need to be properly utilized). In reality, Snow White reflects a long-running trend that live-action Disney remakes of pre-1960 cartoons have a more limited box office reach. They can still be moneymakers (hi Alice in Wonderland!), but the biggest of these remakes have been updates of more recent 1990s titles like Aladdin, The Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast. This Disney remake trend has been largely buoyed by general 1990s nostalgia more than audiences showing up for any o’l Disney cartoon getting the live-action treatment.
Cruella, for instance (which did open simultaneously on premium-video-on-demand), opened to $21.49 million while taking the 1961 feature 101 Dalmatians and its lore in a new direction. Maleficent and Cinderella are two of the bigger grossers among pre-1960 Disney Animation remakes, yet neither one cracked $70 million upon opening weekend. Most ominously for snow White, Dumbo only opened to $45 million in 2019. There’s a reason that Tom Hanks Pinocchio movie (which you forgot all about until reading this piece, I reckon), Peter Pan & Wendy, and 2019’s Lady and the Tramp revamp went straight to Disney+. There isn’t as much of an audience for live-action updates of Fun and Fancy Free and Fantasia’s Night on Bald Mountain segment as there are for The Little Mermaid or Lilo & Stitch.
The biggest problem Snow White faces, though, is its cost. Even Dumbo cost less with a still excessive $190 million budget. This new Webb film, meanwhile, houses a $269.4 million budget. Why on Earth did this cost so much?!? My beloved Hundreds of Beavers cost $150,000 and it delivered so much visual bang for its buck! Meanwhile, Wonka from 2023 cost $125 million to make, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 cost $122 million, and Wicked's first part had a $150 million pricetag. Hell, Snow White cost more to make than the first Avatar, The Dark Knight Rises, or Captain America: Civil War!
Between this and the exorbitant $320 million Electric State budget, major studio and streamer budgets are getting so out of control that it would require a miracle for these movies to be profitable under the best of conditions. Making a Snow White movie that costs more than 2017’s Beauty and the Beast was always just an idiotic proposition plain and simple! The fact that artists like John Waters, Todd Solondz, Ava DuVernay, and countless other indie filmmakers struggle to secure financing for vital original works just makes those costs extra sickening. Snow White is a flop, this year’s equivalent to The Flash: an embarrassingly costly project plagued by endless pre-release buzz that general audiences just didn’t want. However, it’s not an especially surprising one given the track record of other live-action remakes of pre-1960 Disney movies. The way its costs epitomize larger problems in Hollywood, though, that’s what needs to be remembered and talked about endlessly.
Black Bag held nicely for second place this weekend, easing 42% to gross another $4.4 million and a $14.8 million ten-day gross. This should hit $20+ million domestically, the fourth consecutive Focus Features release to hit that mark following Conclave, Nosferatu, and Last Breath. On a $50 million budget, this one won’t be profitable theatrically unless it blows up internationally, but in raw grosses, I’d chalk it up as a solid win for original adult-skewing movies in theaters. Captain America: Brave New World went up to third place this weekend, a signal of how bad the market is. It took in another $4.1 million, a 28% dip from last weekend. Brave New World's now grossed $192.1 million domestically. One more solid weekend-to-weekend hold and it'll get past $200 million in North America.
Mickey 17 dropped another 48%, grossing $3.9 million for a $40.2 million 17-day domestic total. Novocaine couldn't make up ground after its underwhelming bow last frame, as it fell 57% in its second frame. That means it grossed another $3.76 million for $15.76 million ten-day haul.
The other wide release newcomer this weekend was The Alto Knights, the first new movie green-lit by the David Zaslav Warner Bros. regime. It capsized with just $2.8 million from 2,651 theaters, an abysmal debut any way you slice it. A poorly reviewed and barely marketed mob thriller cratering isn't shocking. What is funny, though, is how the film's opening was less than The Day the Earth Blew Up, a movie Zaslav's Warner Bros. sold off to a rival studio. Sometimes life is quite poetic.
The Day the Earth Blew Up fell 41% this weekend to gross another $1.83 million for a $6.4 million domestic total. Nothing super massive here, but hey, Blew Up distributor Ketchup Entertainment is allegedly closing in on acquiring Coyote vs. Acme, which would be great news. The Monkey had another great weekend-to-weekend drop, easing 38% to gross $1.54 million for a $37.86 million domestic total. This one looks quite certain to get past $40 million domestically, a terrific feat for an indie horror movie.
Even with a new family film on the block, Dog Man didn't collapse this weekend, easing 41% to gross another $1.5 million. This DreamWorks Animation feature has now grossed $95.6 million. Can it get that extra $4.4 million to crack $100 million domestically? I'd say it just misses it, but who knows. Rounding out the top ten was The Last Supper, which dropped 52% to gross another $1.53 million for a $5.32 million domestic total. Paddington in Peru dropped 51% this weekend to gross another $1.3 million for a $43.66 million domestic total.
The Avenue Entertainment, the label that distributed Land of Bad domestically last year, launched Locked in 971 theaters this weekend for a middling $964,000 debut. Grossing $993 per theater, this one's off to a slow start. Finally, among this weekend's trio of wide releases launching in under 1,500 theaters, Ash only $716,777 from 1,136 locations for a $631 per theater average. At least it’s a better opening than other bows of recent genre films from distributor ELJ Entertainment’s sister company, IFC Films. What a bizarre timeline to live in where the director of Kuso gets a movie launched in wide release. Another weekend, another Briarcliff Entertainment wide release that fails to move the needle. Magazine Dreams opened in 815 theaters this weekend two years after its 2023 Sundance premiere. It only grossed $700,000 for an $859 per theater average.
Opus collapsed 72% in its second weekend and grossed just $282,521 for a $1.8 million domestic total. Among A24 movies that opened immediately in wide release, Only Free Fire with $1.79 million did worse. It should also surpass Tusk's $1.82 million, but that's about it. The documentary October 8 lost 14 theaters this weekend but increased 7% after showing off strong daily box office numbers in the past week. Grossing another $250,000 from 113 locations for a $2,212 per theater average, October 8 has now grossed $851,116 and will soon become 2025's third documentary to exceed $1+ million domestically.
No Other Land continued its impressive domestic box office run this frame even after losing eight theaters from last weekend. Despite a decrease in its screens, No Other Land went up 9% from last weekend and grossed another $181,575. This feature’s now grossed $1.74 million despite having no distributor. Epheus expanded into 80 locations and grossed $108,273 for a $1,353 per theater average. It's doing decently for such a low-key indie film, but it's really doing well by the standards of distributor Music Box Films. Sometime this week, Epheus will surpass Fremont to become the biggest Music Box Films release since Transit in 2019. Exempting that title, it'll be the biggest Music Box release since The Midwife from July 2017.
Founded in 2008, Music Box Films was really on a roll from 2008-2017 (starting off life by distributing those Swedish Girl with the Dragon Tattoo adaptations helped give them some momentum) but the label's been very quiet on all front in the last eight years. We need all indie labels on deck in these trying times for theatrical cinema, so it’s good to see Music Box Films getting a jolt of life with a quietly solid performer like Epheus.
Becoming Led Zeppelin cracked $84,517 this weekend, which pushed it past the $10 million mark domestically. That’s a tremendous feat for both a documentary and a Sony Pictures Classics release. Bob Trevino Likes It garnered an A+ CinemaScore this weekend but only opened to $58,138 from five theaters for an $11,627 per theater average. Secret Mall Apartment opened to $40,500 from a single theater, a terrific bow though it’s hard to say how this will foretell its larger domestic run since these figures come from a solitary theater in Providence, Rhode Island (where the documentary takes place).
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl expanded into 112 theaters and grossed $59,527 for a $531 per theater average. After 17 days of domestic play, it's now grossed $118,179. Misericordia opened to $25,200 from three locations for an $8,400 per theater average while Being Maria opened to $6,270 from a single location.
The top ten movies this weekend only grossed $68.4 million, That finally broke the three-weekend streak of domestic top ten hauls in the $45.1-48.5 million range, but still, what a dreary cume for late March. The March 5-7, 1999 weekend when Analyze This debuted 26 years ago made slightly more than this frame, even before adjusting for inflation. Past March blockbuster movies opened to $68+ million all on their own, whereas the entire marketplace could only reach that figure this frame.
March 2025 has only grossed $287.3 million to date and there's only one more weekend left to make up any ground. Exempting March's 2020 and 2021, it's likely March 2025 is the lowest-grossing March at the domestic box office since 1995. What an atrocious outcome dictated by a slate of new movies that all suffer from being insipid, limited in the audiences they appeal to, and too many of them hailing from the same genre. April 2025 does look more promising with A Minecraft Movie, Warfare, and Sinners on the horizon, but good Lord, these first three months have been dreary.