'Snow White' Box Office Run Is Almost Over, Cementing All-Time Flop For Disney

The Walt Disney Company's live action remake of "Snow White" hit theaters just over a month ago on March 19. And now, by late April, its box office run has all but officially come to an end, cementing its status as one of the biggest box office flops in Hollywood history. 

Soon after the film released, tracking sites and entertainment industry media published estimates of how much money "Snow White" could lose, assuming that box office tracking was accurate. It was already an astronomical write-off for Disney, even with the initial estimates. But with the film's theatrical run rapidly drawing to a close, it's now possible to get a more complete picture of just how bad things are for "Snow White" and for its studio.

And it's much, much worse than even those initial predictions.

Think Disney will learn its lesson?

READ: 'Snow White' Hits Another Remarkable New Low

NEW YORK - Rachel Zegler attends the "Y2K" New York Screening at Crosby Street Hotel on November 18, 2024. (Photo by Santiago Felipe/Getty Images)

‘Snow White’ Box Office Gets Even More Disastrous For Disney

After its dismal, $42 million opening weekend, "Snow White" dropped 66 percent in its second weekend. At the time, Deadline reported that it expected the film to reach at least $225 million at the international box office, largely based on hopes for domestic grosses to recover as the film stayed in theaters.

That did not happen.

After its poor second weekend, "Snow White" ticket sales dropped 58.5 percent in its third weekend. Then another 51.3 percent in its fourth weekend. And 57.6 percent after that. Easter weekend, its last chance at making any significant box office inroads, added just $1.2 million from 1,650 theaters. That's a woeful $743 per theater average, and assuming a $15 ticket price, it's possible theaters sold a grand total of just 50 tickets to see the movie per day. That's not even enough to fill half of a large stadium seating auditorium. For one showing.

It got much worse in the days afterward. On Thursday, the film reached the effective end of its box office run, grossing just $88,830 from 1,650 theaters. An average of $53 per theater. So on Thursday, an average theater showing "Snow White" likely sold around 3-4 tickets to see it. The entire day.

But embarrassing daily and weekend numbers aside, it's the cumulative total that's the worst news for Disney. Deadline in early-April said Disney expected to lose roughly $115 million on it. That, though, was based on making $225 million at the global box office, with $410 million in estimated production and marketing costs. 

It's come in $30 million less than that. 

Through Thursday, "Snow White" has made just $194.7 million in box office revenues globally. Take that $115 million loss and turn it into $145 million. 

So for $410 million in costs, Disney made just $195 million in box office revenues, coming up $215 million short. Yes, Disney will recoup some more costs with streaming revenue and so on, but this is one of the costliest disasters in film history. All because Disney couldn't get out of its own way with politicized casting, story decisions and an extremely unlikable lead actress.

When you see results like that, it's not hard to believe Disney stock has underperformed the S&P by more than 100 percent in the last five years. CEO Bob Iger, despite his reputation, has been a disaster in his second tenure. "Snow White" being just the latest example. At some point, even a company as big as Disney has to make money on its products. Maybe next time it will put story, quality and creativity first, and politics last. As it always should have.