The poor box office and critical reception to Snow White have caused Disney to hit pause on another live-action remake. Snow White had a lot of controversy before even making it into theaters. People found problems with the CGI dwarves, and star Rachel Zegler drew the ire of Snow White fans by knocking the original film’s love story. Disney has had varying success with its live-action adaptations, but Snow White falls in the failure category. This has seemingly caused the studio to rethink its plans for Tangled, with The Hollywood Reporter stating the movie has been paused.
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Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) was set to direct the live-action Tangled, with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Thor: Love and Thunder, Do Revenge) providing the script. While it isn’t explicitly stated that Tangled is paused because of the underwhelming Snow White, you can connect the dots and figure out that the two are linked. Snow White has grossed $69 million domestically and $145 million worldwide, on a budget of $270 million.
There was a massive drop during the second week of Snow White‘s release, with the movie also falling to second place at the box office behind Jason Statham’s A Working Man. That movie made $15.6 million, while Snow White grossed $13.7 million domestically. THR notes that it isn’t known if development on Tangled will continue at a later date or if a creative overhaul will take place. Remains to be seen.
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The most recent Disney remake to come out before Snow White was Mufasa: The Lion King. It had a lower-than-expected opening of $35.4 million domestically, but rebounded to end with $718 million globally. It’s very unlikely that Snow White sees that level of a rebound. Before Mufasa: The Lion King was The Little Mermaid, another disappointment earning $570 million.
On the horizon for Disney is a remake of Lilo & Stitch, an adaptation of the 2022 animated movie. An adorable teaser trailer was released during the Super Bowl, with Stitch hijacking the broadcast to scurry across the football field. The Lilo & Stitch Super Bowl spot became Disney’s second-most-viewed live-action trailer of all time. So there is already high interest in the project that arrives in theaters on May 23rd.
After Lilo & Stitch is the live-action Moana. The second film in the animated franchise just arrived on Disney+, with the streamer boasting some impressive numbers on the platform. Disney states subscribers have streamed Moana 2 for 1.4 billion hours, which is equivalent to streaming the movie 735 million times. Moana 2 is also in third place for 2024 films, grossing $1 billion.
Tangled featured a retelling of the story of Rapunzel and starred Mandy Moore as Rapunzel and Zachary Levi as Flynn Rider. Levi previously revealed he’d be up for reprising his role in the live-action remake.
Speaking at a fan convention in 2023, Levi responded to the idea of Florence Pugh taking on the role of Rapunzel in a live-action Tangled. If the Academy Award nominee were brought in to play the long-haired princess, Levi said he wants to reprise his role of Flynn Rider.
“There was this thing, I just saw it earlier, floating around the internet that Florence Pugh potentially might play the role of Rapunzel,” Levi said. “And if Florence plays Rapunzel… (indistinguishable excited noise). It would also be a trip because my real last name is Pugh, by the way. My name is Zachary Levi Pugh. You’d have a Pugh-Pugh (makes pew-pew noise) in Tangled? Come on!”
Are you disappointed to hear that Tangled is being paused? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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