The Disney empire has taken a serious hit this spring, and it didn’t come from a streaming rival or a superhero fatigue narrative—it came from pixelated blocks.
Warner Bros.’ A Minecraft Movie (2025), based on the beloved video game, has stormed the box office with an explosive debut, raking in $50 million on opening day (including Thursday previews) and eyeing a massive $130–$150 million weekend.
Led by Jack Black and Jason Momoa and directed by Jared Hess, the adaptation has quickly overtaken the conversation—especially among younger audiences. According to Deadline, “Warners, just like you started a sensation with Barbie, you did again with A Minecraft Movie. We’re getting reports of auditoriums full of middle schoolers hooting, hollering, and shouting out meme lines from the game. Kids are jumping on top of seats and dancing in the aisles when Jack Black breaks out in song. A Minecraft Movie mania is real, and ticket sales keep building up like bricks…”
This kind of fervor has cast a long shadow over Disney’s high-profile misfire, Snow White (2025). Initially slated for release in March 2024, the live-action remake was pushed back to 2025 due to last year’s WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. But when it finally hit theaters on March 21, the film opened to a modest $47 million—well below projections of $60–70 million and notably lacking any major competition that weekend.
The project now sits at $147 million globally, with a production budget estimated near $270 million. That leaves the Mouse House staring down a projected $115 million loss—making it one of the company’s costliest theatrical stumbles in years.
The backlash surrounding the film was already intense before release. Since its announcement in 2016 and the casting of Rachel Zegler (West Side Story, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) in 2021, the production has been under fire over creative choices ranging from the adaptation of the dwarfs to the omission of beloved elements like the iconic “Someday My Prince Will Come.” Heightened discourse from 2022 through 2025 only amplified the criticism.
Following the box office disappointment, the fallout has been swift. Variety published a deep-dive on the project’s troubled journey, with a spotlight on Zegler’s public behavior during promotion. Meanwhile, Jonah Platt—son of producer Marc Platt—made waves with a fiery social media post about the film’s reception, which was later deleted. Disney, for its part, has reportedly shelved its live-action remake of Tangled (2010), citing the underperformance and backlash surrounding Snow White.
Adding to the uphill battle was the film’s underwhelming marketing campaign. Despite starring names like Zegler and Gal Gadot (as the Evil Queen), the studio avoided large-scale promotional events and failed to generate viral buzz online. Reports of tension between the leads due to political differences may have played a part in the subdued rollout. Zegler did step up her online presence after release, celebrating the movie’s debut with posts celebrating it being the number-one film in the world.
Meanwhile, A Minecraft Movie capitalized on every corner of its potential audience. With a major McDonald’s Happy Meal tie-in and a social media presence that’s sparked widespread fan videos on TikTok, Warner Bros. has tapped into the kind of cross-generational momentum Disney once owned. The box office crown has already shifted. The film is set to dethrone Captain America: Brave New World, which opened earlier this year with $88 million.
Though Snow White has been buried in its third weekend, Disney still has some wind left in its sails. Animated sequels like Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 crossed the billion-dollar mark in 2024. But as the studio gears up for the release of Pixar’s original feature Elio later this year, questions remain: will audiences show up—or wait for its inevitable drop on Disney+? Pixar’s Elemental (2023) proved that sleeper hits are still possible, especially with international audiences, but domestic traction continues to be a challenge.
Both Disney’s Snow White and A Minecraft Movie are now playing in theaters.
How do you feel about Disney’s recent box office performance? Will you be heading to the theater to see A Minecraft Movie? Let us know in the comments down below!
No I will not be going to see any Disney movies and only maybe a marvel movie. If it looks like it might be decent. But everything that Disney is putting out it’s so far gone out on the woke side in the left side, Bob iger should be fired and I think that people should be boycotting Disney. So maybe they would change and go back to what walked himself wanted easy to be, but I’m glad to see that the new movie flopped on itself. I Hope the rest of them do It suit me if Disney just closed up and I told my grandchildren now I wouldn’t give him any money for disney.They’d have to save their own.I would give them money to go to universal and see world.Thanks for your time
As a leftist, I think you need to wake up. I also think Snow White’s skin needs to be almost unnaturally pale for the title to make any sense, so we probably agree on other things. I hope you take your grandchildren to see the Minecraft movie if they play the game at all. It’s way better than any live action remake Disney has made.
Well Iger did it again loss on another movie , how many millions on this one. Stop doing live action movies. When is disney people is going to stop doing other peoples movies and come up with different types of movies.
Well, they tried to change a movie that MADE disney, and they are surprised! I will not be seeing any of Disney’s new movies and and after decades, I am no longer a passholder at the park. The changes they are making are erasing the history and the beauty that Disney created
That’s exactly what I think as well, Brenda. I was a passholder since the 80’s until 2021 when Disney started getting too political, prices soared while taking away the passholder perks and making all the passes have blackout dates. And you can’t change a Disney story like they did with Snow White and expect people to embrace it and to allow the main actress spout off her mouth publically like a little brat before the movie comes out. They should have fired her and canned the movie. We haven’t been back to Disney since 2021, and we used to go all the time because we live in central Florida.
I was just at WDW a couple of weeks ago. There weren’t any ads, merchandise, promotional tie-ins,…nothing to give any indication that a new movie had been released. I honestly didn’t know the movie was out until this article. Disney obviously chose to let this one fail.
Rachel Zegler is now box office poison. Who would want to work with a big mouthed brat?
It’s not just Bob Iger that needs to be fired the whole Disney bored needs to fired. Yes Iger is the CEO but he still can’t really do much without the permission of the bored. So with that being said Iger agreed with the bored too continue with this trash of a movie instead of saying this is not a good idea. Fired them all. And maybe just maybe we’ll start seeing Disney returning to what it should be.
How about a test? Do the remake of Tangled. But do it in the traditional, family friendly way. Ax all of thee political, woke garbage and see how it does. Compare it to the Snow White nightmare and see what folks want.
I know someone who saw Snow White they said it was really bad! Don’t understand Disney anymore, the movies are awful no original new family movies are produced. Disney should do a live action of Tiana and hire Miley Cyrus to play Tiana! I can’t wait to see Minecraft, and I’m over 50, it looks so great. We just came back from WDW and I have to say I am so sick of it, so many rides are down, the food is just awful in the parks, crowds, crowds and more crowds, when we were at Epcot the new area by connections is just a big waste of money, why didn’t they put a ride in there, they make seating but the food is not close. The new ride closures coming to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom will give people even less things to do, it’s all very sad. But all is not lost I just booked Epic Universe and it looks unbelievable, maybe Disney should hire their imagineers!
I stopped watching Disney live action remates after I saw Aladin. They just don’t cut it for me. I used to be a pass holder but gave it up after the scamdemic. I loved Disney the Walt planned it but no longer have the desire to go. They went woke and now they can go broke or get back to family values and get off the left track. I still love Mickey but Disney has been ruined for me especially doing away with fast passes and selling very expensive lightning passes. No thank you. I will keep going to SeaWorld who gives pass holders a lot more perks and appreciate their guests.