Disney's Snow White hit theaters last Friday, and the movie has not been performing very well at the box office, making just $43 million over the course of its opening weekend in the U.S. The latest updates put the fantasy adventure at just under $50M domestic, but it still hasn't reached $100M worldwide.
Critics have not been overly kind to Disney's latest live-action remake, although it's important to note that the movie has been the source of "controversy" for quite a while, with stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot both coming in for backlash for their very different stances on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Zegler also made some comments about the original animated classic that didn't go over very well with fans.
This week, Variety published what many consider to be a "hit piece" on Zegler, and the article definitely suggests that the studio is at least partially laying the blame for Snow White's box office woes at the young Shazam! Fury of the Gods star's feet.
Jonah Platt, son of producer Marc Platt, has now taken to Instagram to defend his father in the wake of Variety's report, which claimed that Platt — apparently at Disney‘s behest — flew to New York City in August to ask Zegler to remove a “free Palestine” comment that she made on a social media post while she was thanking her fans for watching the Snow White trailer.
When one commenter chimed in to call Platt’s father “creepy as hell” for his efforts to control Zegler's posts and force her to compromise her principles, Jonah responded with the following (since deleted) post.
"You really want to do this? Yeah, my dad, the producer of enormous piece of Disney IP with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, had to leave his family to fly across the country to reprimand his 20 year old employee for dragging her personal politics into the middle of promoting the movie for which she signed a multi-million dollar contract to get paid and do publicity for.”
He continued: “This is called adult responsibility and accountability. And her actions clearly hurt the film’s box office. Free speech does not mean you’re allowed to say whatever you want in your private employment without repercussions. Tens of thousands of people worked on that film and she hijacked the conversation for her own immature desires at the risk of all the colleagues and crew and blue collar workers who depend on that movie to be successful. Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged.”
As you might imagine, Platt's comments have gained a lot of attention, with some agreeing with his stance and others calling him way out of line. Whatever your opinion may be, it seems unfair to put so much of the blame for any movie's underperformance on just one actor when so many other factors are involved.
Disney had no immediate comment, nor did a representative for Jonah or Marc Platt.
Melissa Barrera - who was the subject of a very similar article by Variety's Tatiana Siegel after being fired from Scream 7 for showing her support of Palestine - shared the following on social media.
Disney’s Snow White is directed by Marc Webb, written by Erin Cressida Wilson, and produced by Marc Platt, p.g.a., and Jared LeBoff, p.g.a., with Callum McDougall serving as executive producer. The film features all-new original songs from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and an original score composed by Jeff Morrow.
The film also stars Andrew Burnap as Jonathan, Andrew Barth Feldman as Dopey, Tituss Burgess as Bashful, Martin Klebba as Grumpy, Jason Kravits as Sneezy, George Salazar as Happy, Jeremy Swift as Doc, and Andrew Grotelueschen as Sleepy.
Snow White is now in theaters. Do you plan on checking this one out on the big screen, or will you be waiting for streaming? Be sure to let us know in the comments section down below.