Snow White, Alto Knights Fall Short in Box Office Opening Weekends

Disney executives might feel more aligned with the dwarves known as Grumpy or Bashful rather than one called Happy after a Sleepy box office start for “Snow White.”

The studio’s live-action remake of 1937’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” opened slightly behind expectations at the international box office with $44.3 million from 51 markets. Top earning territories were the United Kingdom with $5.1 million, Mexico with $4.1 million and France with $3 million. The film bombed in China with an embarrassing $900,000.

“Snow White,” starring Rachel Zegler as the eponymous heroine and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, ignited to $43 million domestically for a global launch of $87.3 million. Headed into the weekend, the controversy-laden fairy tale was expected to reach $100 million in its worldwide debut. How the film performs in subsequent weekends will determine whether it’s a misfire or success. Disney spent above $250 million on the tentpole before marketing expenses, so the family film needs to stick around in global cinemas to justify its price tag. The studio hopes the final tally is closer to last December’s “Mufasa: The Lion King” ($716 million) rather than 2019’s live-action “Dumbo” remake ($353 million); both of those films had lackluster starts (by Disney standards) akin to “Snow White.”

Fellow newcomer,  Robert De Niro’s R-rated mob drama “The Alto Knights,” bombed overseas with $1.8 million from eight markets including the U.K., Italy, France and Spain. Not a single market managed to hit $500,000 — a dismal result for a major studio release. The Warner Bros. film, which cost roughly $45 million, also cratered in North America with $3.2 million in its debut. Neither critics nor audiences were fond of “Alto Knights,” in which De Niro stars opposite himself as two of New York’s most notorious organized crime bosses.

“Alto Knights” is the second consecutive misfire for Warner…