2025’s box office slump continued in a major way this weekend, with Snow White underwhelming, while Ash and Alto Knights did terribly.
Disney’s live action remake of Snow White was never going to open to boffo box office. The toxic early buzz and poor tracking suggested that the Mouse House was fighting an uphill battle with this one, but given how well their live-action remakes did in the past, no one expected the film to open to less than $50 million – including us. That number was seen by some as a worst-case scenario, considering the $270 million price tag.
However, Deadline is now reporting that the movie is opening far worse than anyone expected, with a $43 million weekend, which is even less than the flop remake of Dumbo (which cost half of what Snow White did) made. Unless the box office picks up notably in the next few weeks (similar to what happened with Mufasa: The Lion King), Disney is going to lose a mint on this one, with it the second major misfire of the year, following Captain America: Brave New World. Ironically, that film, which is going to go down as one of Marvel’s lowest grossers, ended up in third place this weekend (higher than expected) with a $4.1 million weekend and a $192.1 million domestic total, which means it should still break $200 million domestically. It’s still the year’s highest grosser, although with it unlikely to pass $500 million internationally, it will likely fail to turn a profit for Disney. However, they have two more kicks at the can this year with Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Steven Soderbergh’s adult-skewed Black Bag proved to be the recent release with the most staying power, falling 42% for a $4.4 million weekend. Given the $50 million price tag, the $14.88 million total is likely not very good for distributor Focus Features, but at least it’s showing a small bit of resilience in theaters. Last week’s champ, Novocaine, fell much steeper than expected, 57%, to fifth place, with only $3.76 million and a total of $15.76 million. It was narrowly defeated by Mickey 17, Warner Bros’s sci-fi flop, which made $3.8 million for a $40 million total.
That wasn’t WB’s only disappointment this weekend. Their crime drama, The Alto Knights, had a horrible opening, only mustering $3 million in over 2500 theaters. The Robert De Niro-vehicle (he plays two roles) had to overcome bad reviews and little-to-no marketing from a studio that clearly lost faith in it. It was followed at the box office by a movie the studio actually produced but then sold, The Day the Earth Blew Up, and an animated Looney Tunes film, which made $1.83 million for a $6 million-plus total. While those aren’t great numbers, Ketchup is apparently still in business with WB, with them looking to buy their shelved Coyote vs ACME.
Neon’s The Monkey continued to show serious muscle at the box office, making $1.55 million for a $37 million domestic total, while Dog Man made $1.5 million, with the $95 million total not too far from the century mark. The faith based film, Last Supper, made $1.33 million for a $5.3 million total.
Other new releases fared even worse than Alto Knights, with IFC/Shudder’s Ash proving to be a disaster, with it making only $716k on over 1100 screens. That’s only $631 a screen – OUCH. The long-shelved Jonathan Majors flick, Magazine Dreams, didn’t do any better, making $700k on 815 screens – making it seem like the actor won’t be making a comeback anytime soon. Another notable flop is A24’s Opus, which plummeted 72% in week 2, with only $282k and a horrible $1.8 million total, making it one of the indie company’s few horror disasters. The Sam Raimi-produced Locked, which stars Bill Skarsgard and Anthony Hopkins did better, with $829k on 971 screens, with it also available digitally.
Next weekend, Jason Statham will return to theaters with A Working Man. Will the Stallone-penned film be a sleeper hit in the vein of The Beekeeper, or will it be an Expend4bles-sized flop? Let us know in the comments!
