Rachel Zegler is going through a tough public moment right now. She was seen looking downcast in New York, walking her dog, after the disappointing box office results of Snow White. Despite Disney’s huge investment (around $270 million), the movie didn’t connect well with audiences and is expected to cause Disney a massive financial loss.
Part of the backlash is being tied to the film’s “modernized” storyline and controversies around Zegler’s outspoken political views, especially her pro-Palestine posts, which clashed with her co-star Gal Gadot’s strong pro-Israel stance. There were even reported tensions between the two off-camera. Critics also found issues with the film’s CGI effects and story changes, like turning the prince into a different character.
Online, the film was heavily “review-bombed,” scoring poorly on IMDb, and even though audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes were a bit better (72%), it still couldn’t save the box office numbers. Internal reports say Disney execs tried to manage Zegler’s social media, but controversies continued.
There’s also growing fatigue with Disney’s live-action remake strategy overall, with several other projects now paused or moved to streaming. The Snow White outcome seems to have amplified this concern.
To make it worse, Rachel’s West Side Story co-star Ariana DeBose accidentally shared a post that many took as blaming Rachel for the movie’s failure — and had to backtrack quickly.
In short, the film is struggling, Rachel Zegler is in a media storm, and Disney is now rethinking its whole live-action approach.
