And with that, Disney has thrown in the towel.
The box office disaster that was Snow White has apparently terrified and hurt Disney so badly that it’s seemingly scrapped its plans for a major live-action remake.
According to the New York Post, the 2010 hit Tangled was due for a live-action revamp, but thanks to the Snow White bomb, that’s all over:
Disney is hitting the pause button on its planned live-action remake of the 2010 animated hit “Tangled” following the disastrous box office performance of “Snow White,” according to multiple reports published Thursday.
The Hollywood Reporter was the first to break the news. Entertainment Weekly and Deadline later confirmed the story.
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According to Deadline, the movie was officially in preproduction and meetings with potential stars were already underway when Disney pulled the plug. The outlet also reported that “Snow White” tanking at the box office — the $270 million movie has grossed $69 million domestically and $145 million worldwide — led the House of Mouse to re-evaluate plans for other planned live-action adaptations borrowing on its animated IP library.
It’s not clear if the Tangled remake is officially dead, or if it’s simply paused.
Before any movie-making continues on princess movies, in particular, it’s likely there’s going to be a massive remake on how Disney does business first. As I said in a YouTube video on this, Disney is probably going to spend quite a bit of time look at how it works its contracts, exploring how far they can push them in terms of making sure its stars keep their mouths shut during filming, advertising, and release.
This means that if they do go forward with a Tangled remake in the future, its actors will be heavily vetted and heavily silenced. Disney’s lawyers will be pushing the bounds of contracts, and no doubt, SAG-AFTRA will be pushing back.
That said, Disney has a live-action remake on deck to release soon, and that’s Lilo & Stich, a movie that seems free of any controversy so far. If Disney can pull this movie off and actually deliver something the people like, it may empower Disney to tentatively test the waters with a remake of a princess movie again. If it does, you can bet this will be handled far differently than Snow White, a failure that will undoubtedly teach Disney a serious lesson.
However, before it does that, it may need to clear another live-action hurdle in Moana, which Disney also has a planned release for. The Kingdom that Walt Built is currently facing a fork in the road, and it must take the right path at this juncture. Any further mistakes, especially any that lean further into creating sub-par multi-million dollar failures, will cause untold problems for the entertainment Goliath.
But all will be told, sooner rather than later.
In the meantime, you have Disney shaking in its boots, terrified with proceeding, and moreover, terrified of what kind of issues it may face during its own productions. Its obsession with left-leaning ideological agenda items is at the root of what caused Snow White to bomb as bad as it did, and if it’s going to never make that mistake again, it’s going to have to turn its back on a lot of it.
