Zack Peter, host of the popular pop culture podcast “No Filter,” has been following the downward spiral of “Snow White” from the beginning.
Though some estimates from February predicted the film to make upwards of $85 million domestically in its opening weekend, “Snow White” opened in the U.S. and Canada to only $43 million in ticket sales. It then suffered a 66% drop at the box office in its second weekend. This past weekend, the new “A Minecraft Movie” opened with $163 million, while “Snow White” made just $6 million.
In Peter’s opinion, star Rachel Zegler is largely to blame for the movie’s collapse. In the months leading up to the “Snow White” premiere, Zegler’s outspoken politics gave her and the upcoming movie some unwanted attention. She posted the message, “Free Palestine,” on X, and in another post on Instagram she wished that Donald Trump supporters “never know peace.” She would later apologize for the latter comment, but not before some damage had already been done.
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“I know people try to argue that like Gal Gadot and, you know, the other people were part of the criticism, but I feel like Rachel Zegler was very much at the center of it,” Peter told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. “She was very polarizing. She told people, you know, if they didn’t vote for Kamala Harris, she didn’t want their support. And I think they heard that message loud and clear. And so they didn’t want to come and support her.”
“And I think what, you know, somebody like Rachel Zegler, and I know she’s young, but I think what she fails to realize is it’s like, even if she does want to polarize her audience and there’s a fraction of the community that she doesn’t want supporting her, those are still people that have kids and their families, and they’re going to want to take their kids to be part of the magic that is Disney,” he continued. “And I feel like she definitely lost that message and turned a lot of people off.”
“I mean, the fact that she attached the promo of the trailer for Snow White with her free Palestine comment, Disney very much doesn’t like to get political at all,” he added. “They want to make sure that the magic of Disney is a welcoming community for everyone. So, I mean, I know a lot of people want to give her a pass, but I think a big part of why the movie bombed was because she’s the face of the film.”
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Peter suggested though that Disney was partly at fault for not “training” Zegler enough for her press tour.
“And maybe that’s Disney’s part. Disney’s failure to not prepare her for, you know, media training enough, but I just feel like at some point we need to hold her accountable to, like, at least understand how, if you’re going to want to pursue a career in Hollywood, and you’re going to want to attach yourself to a big brand like Disney, you’re going to kind of have to play by their rules if they’re paying you millions of dollars to be part of this film.”
Jonah Platt, son of “Snow White” producer Marc Platt, claimed in a now-deleted Instagram comment that his dad was forced to take time away from his family to deal with the Zegler fallout.
“Yeah, my dad, the producer of [an] 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 wrote.
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Peter regretted that Disney, as of late, appeared to be straying from the classic love story formula. The live-action “Snow White” removed the song in which she sings about finding her true love and instead largely focuses on her quest to become a leader. Zegler even disparaged the original plot of the movie as backwards at the 2022 D23 Expo.
“I just mean that it’s no longer 1937,” she told Variety. “She’s not going to be saved by the prince, and she’s not going to be dreaming about true love. She’s dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be and the leader that her late father told her that she could be if she was fearless, fair, brave and true.”
“I don’t know why it’s so controversial to have a love story now, you know?” Peter mused to Fox News Digital. “Like, I just, I don’t understand. I fully believe that we can build up women without having to tear down men. And I don’t understand why we need to like, make men the villain here and why she can’t have a love interest. Like, that’s kind of the premise that so many of us grew up watching Disney is like falling for that fairy tale and wanting to fall in love.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Disney and Zegler for comment but did not immediately receive responses.
Fox News Digital’s Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.
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