Snow White’s Box Office Leads To Tangled Adaptation Getting Canned

Snow White has underperformed at the box office to a disappointing degree, and a recent report confirms that this failure to deliver has given Disney cold feet about another upcoming live-action remake, forcing the company to put it on ice.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is widely considered the project that really solidified Disney as the company that fans know it as today, as it was the first animated feature film made in the US and the first ever to make use of what fans now know as traditional (or cel) animation. As such, it was a pretty big deal when Disney announced Snow White, a live-action adaptation of the original film. The project drew criticism from the start, with reasons varying from indignation about the very idea of remaking such a pivotal part of animation history to comments made by the film’s lead, Rachel Zegler. The film would eventually hit theaters last month, at which point viewers were quick to dismiss the film and note that it made some big changes from the original 1937 animated movie.

Related

Bryan Cranston Promises A Different Vibe On Malcolm In The Middle Revival: ‘I’ve Been Trying To Get This Going For 12 Years’

Malcolm in the Middle is finally making a return, and fans will have to thank Bryan Cranston in more ways than one when it hits streaming.

Fan opinion aside, it was clear from the start that Snow White’s box office performance was falling short of Disney’s expectations when it only reached half its projected opening numbers and continued to flounder. While no Snow White sequel could have potentially been adapted if the film succeeded, its failure seems to have found another project to impact instead, and not for the better. According to an exclusive report from The Hollywood Reporter, Disney’s planned live-action adaptation of Tangled has now been put on pause indefinitely as a direct response to the poor showing of Snow White. The film had been in active development for a while now, with director Michael Gracey set to direct with a script by Thor 4 scribe Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.

The Tanking Of Snow White At The Box Office Is Causing Disney To Rethink Live Action

While Snow White was controversial from the start, Tangled was in a much better space in terms of public perception and box office potential. The original Tangled film from 2010 was pretty successful, more than doubling its $260 million budget at the box office. Additionally, the film would spawn a sequel and a television series that ran on Disney’s linear programming for three seasons. Additionally, since the story was already a very modern take on the Rapunzel tale, complete with bog-standard digitally produced visuals, the concerns surrounding Snow White didn’t apply in any way. Additionally, rumors were floating that Disney was considering one or two big names for the lead role, which added some degree of anticipation to the otherwise unremarkable remake project amidst a sea of other similar remake projects. As things stand, the company is likely waiting to see how the upcoming live-action adaptations of Moana and Lilo & Stitch fare before deciding on Tangled.

Disney’s current woes are made even more critical by the current slate of big franchise plans over at Lionsgate and other competing companies, all of whom have snapped up every notable bit of IP available for adaptations. A fair number of those will be directly competing with Disney’s offerings at the box office, making the future of the company’s divisive live-action adaptations even less certain. Fans will have to wait and see how the projects that are too far along to be canned perform at the box office to get a sense of what the company will decide concerning Tangled. With Lilo & Stitch releasing soon, fans won’t have to wait too long.

Disney’s Snow White is currently available in theaters nationwide.

More

Doctor Who Fans Hate One Aspect Of The 15th Doctor, And It Still Hasn’t Been Fixed For Season 2

Doctor Who fans have one issue with the 15th version of the character, and it appears that it’s not getting fixed.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter