The no.1 film on Disney+ right now is the studio's biggest flop in years

It's not very often that Disney misses. Yes, not everything is going to be gold, but usually the films released by the House of Mouse do relatively well, both financially and critically. Yet, this year marked one of the biggest missteps the movie-making juggernaut has made in quite some time, which is why it's even more surprising that the recently released film is doing quite so well on Disney+.

Maybe it's morbid curiosity, but according to FlixPatrol, the Snow White live-action remake, released in cinemas on 21st March this year, has become a streaming hit. It's now sitting at no.1 on Disney's streaming charts, knocking the original Lilo and Stitch film from the number one spot for the first time in weeks.

The remake of the 1937 classic landed on the streamer on the 11th June, coinciding with a Disney+ offer, and it appears to be working.

Remakes have always been contentious, with many feeling there’s no need to revisit them when the originals for many of these films still hold up. Yet remakes of The Jungle Book, The Lion King, and the recently released Lilo & Stitch have, at the very least, justified the modernisation and retelling of these stories thanks to their financial success.

This was not the case here, as Deadline reported that the live-action Snow White would lose $115 million, potentially prompting a change in strategy from the studio.

Disney’s Snow White | Official Trailer | In Theaters March 21 - YouTube

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Not only has the film faltered financially, but it is also one of the worst-reviewed films of the year, currently sitting with a rating below two on IMDb, and critics sharing the unenthusiastic sentiment. The Guardian described it as an “awful reboot”, going on to add that the film “feels like a very hard day’s work in the IP diamond mine.”

Empire, which offered up only two stars, said the “film feels compromised and so small; like it’s been Frankensteined into submission in the edit and cut and recut 100 times.”

Admittedly, thanks to all the controversies surrounding its release, from story changes to how to handle the seven dwarves, it felt like a film that was always going to struggle. However, the Rachel Zegler-led flick seems to have found new life on Disney+ after a horrible theatrical run.

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