On Aug. 12, 2024, three days after Rachel Zegler hit the stage at Disney’s D23 fan event to introduce the first official trailer of “Snow White,” she thanked supporters effusively in an X post for driving the teaser to 120 million views in 24 hours. One minute later, she added an afterthought in the same thread: “and always remember, free palestine.”
That addendum, which amassed 8.8 million views, nearly four times the number for the initial post, quickly made the rounds, with many inside the studio expressing shock that the “Snow White” star would commingle the promotion of its $270 million tentpole with any kind of political statement. A Disney executive raised the studio’s concerns with Zegler’s team, while the film’s producer Marc Platt flew to New York to speak directly with her. But the actress, whose relationship with the studio began to unravel in 2022 during a contentious “West Side Story” awards season campaign and continued as she trashed the beloved original “Snow White,” stood her ground, and the post remained. Behind the scenes, death threats toward Zegler’s co-star Gal Gadot, who is Israeli, spiked, and Disney had to pay for additional security for the mother of four.
Three months later, following the presidential election, Zegler posted “Fuck Donald Trump” and “May Trump supporters … never know peace” on Instagram. Disney had had enough, given that the star was signaling to half the potential audience of an already troubled film plagued by costly reshoots to stay home. Platt made the case again to Zegler. After a back and forth, she began working with a social media guru paid for by Disney* to vet any posts before the film’s March 21 bow**. Disney declined comment. Zegler did not respond to a request for comment.
Now that the film’s dismal opening weekend — $87 million worldwide — is in the rearview mirror, Burbank brass are evaluating what went wrong. To put “Snow White’s” global box office haul into perspective, it’s about $34 million less than Warner Bros.’ “Joker: Folie à Deux” in October but with a bigger budget by $70 million.
The comments section below the Variety article is a minefield of knee-jerk anti-Israel and anti-Hamas posts, with each side believing the casting of the other actress is what tanked the movie. But it isn’t just the two actresses, of course. When Alissa Heinerscheid imploded Bud Light in 2023 by trashing the brand’s (now former) customers and creating a can celebrating Dylan Mulvaney, Ed Morrissey wrote:
Years from now, business schools will teach the case of Bud Light as a cautionary tale. Suggested course titles: How to Destroy Your Brand Without Really Trying, or Five Ways to Lose Customers by Picking ‘Influencers.’
Similarly, film students will studying Disney’s Snow White remake as an example where everything that could wrong with a movie did go wrong.
* Just to get back Zegler’s social media histrionics, in 2013, Nick Gillespie of Reason wrote: Alec Baldwin’s Real Twitter Problem Isn’t Homophobic Ranting — It’s the End of the Red Carpet.
Remember the good old days, not just when there were only three national TV networks and one or two national newspapers, but when Hollywood studios could virtually completely control the image surrounding their contract players like halos on a saint’s shoulders? Those days are over, Baby Jane.
A few stars still know that they old ways are best. In his video critique of the Snow White debacle, Ben Shapiro noted:
The star Rachel Zegler is unbelievably charmless in public. Studios really need to go back to what they originally did, which was tell your stars to shut up and not say things, because no one is to hear your star say offensive things off the screen.
It’s quite foolish, which is one area, by the way, where Tom Cruise has got it exactly right. One of the reasons he’s still America’s most iconic movie star well into his 60s, is because Tom Cruise you just don’t see him anymore when he is not on the big screen. He’s just that character on the big screen, which means that you can just take him or leave him on the big screen. That that is the smart way to approach this stuff; Hollywood needs to go back to it.
Before it’s too late — and it’s getting increasingly late for the beleaguered industry.
** Apparently, all bets are now off on Disney’s social media guru vetting Zegler’s posts:
Rachel Zegler is watching her movie in a nearly empty theater. LOL pic.twitter.com/urhZZ0dEBJ
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 26, 2025