Snow White and the empty cinemas: Embarrassing photos show deserted theatres with NO bookings in primetime slots as woke-buster becomes 'hilariously abysmal' flop

The crisis facing Disney over its controversial Snow White reboot deepened today amid pictures of empty cinemas and screens with no bookings in primetime slots.

Studio bosses had hoped that the reboot of the 1937 original, which had a budget of more than $270million, would launch with at least $100million in ticket sales.

But the movie starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot took just $87.3million globally including $43million in the US after a slow start followed a slew of negative reviews.

Meanwhile in China, Snow White ranked outside the top five movies in cinemas – bringing in less than $1million in its first three days in a country of 1.4billion people.

The film has also been accused of 'wokeness' after the Seven Dwarfs were re-imagined as a group of 'magical creatures' of all heights, gender and races.

The Mail's Brian Viner gave it two stars, describing it as a 'painfully muddle-headed affair', adding: 'This production has been cursed from the start. Disney's contorted attempts not to offend anyone have somehow managed to offend everyone.'

One prospective cinema-goer shared on social media how the movie sold zero tickets at one point for a prime weekend slot in the US, and just one for another screening.

They posted on X: 'Opening Friday night for Disney's Snow White in Imax. Only ONE person bought tickets for tonight. Yeah this movie's gonna flop.'

Alongside the caption was a photograph of the cinema booking screen, showing just a single seat reserved.

They also posted another image of Saturday night's bookings and penned: 'And for Saturday night? ZERO. I've never seen a major movie from Disney have this little interest opening weekend. This is hilariously abysmal.'

The post attracted over 13million views along with comments from people who observed similar scenes in their cinemas – with one writing: 'I have one better. Dolby Cinema and only a small handful of people.'

A former cinema worker provided reasoning for the possible lack of bookings and said: 'I worked at a cinema for many years. You've screenshot for the 10:15 showing.

'That's pretty late, and usually has much lower attendance. The busiest time is usually the 7 o'clock hour. What do the pre-orders look like for Friday at that time slot?'

It comes as another post on X shared a video of Zegler hoping people would 'wait in line' to see movies she stars in.

It was captioned with: 'Prior to Snow White's release, actress Rachel Zegler told her critics that audiences would wait in line to see her. Snow White is the lowest performing Disney movie in decades. No one waited in line to see it.'

Zegler said in the clip: 'I can only hope that despite my flaws and despite my cracks and my breaks and there are many of them, that at every premiere and every thing I do, people will wait in line to see.

Another video post on X showed a large cinema that seemed to be vacant and was captioned 'so many people here to watch Snow White', before panning to show rows upon rows of empty seats.

One wrote: 'Snow White and the seven viewers.' Another added: 'Go woke, go broke - live from the box office.'

MailOnline approached viewers to get their thoughts on the controversial remake, and many were not impressed.

Friends Shannon, 28, and Chelsea, 24, were left disappointed by the film and awarded it a on- star rating.

Shannon said: 'We didn't like it. It was really not fleshed out. They stuck to the original, but then they added so many bits that lead absolutely nowhere.

'It's like there's no intention. The story needed more purpose. It's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs yet it felt like the dwarfs were there for ten minutes.'

But NHS worker Rachel Bulman, 50, gave it 4.5 stars and praised the remake as 'really good'. She added: 'It didn't take away from the story that says if you keep true to yourself, be kind and fair, then you can overcome anything.'

The remake has come under fire due to comments from Rachel Zegler and the absence of the iconic song Someday My Prince Will Come.

In a 2022 interview, she said: 'There's a big focus on her love story with the guy who literally stalks her. Weird, weird. So we didn't do that this time.'

The movie had set out with far higher ambitions, particularly since it returned Disney to its origins – given the 1937 original 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' was the company's first animated feature, and paid for its studio lot in Burbank, California.

But the run-up to its release was plagued by controversies over the film's handling of the dwarfs, who are rendered in CGI, with Disney then pulling back on its premiere.

There was also a backlash about pro-Palestinian comments by Zegler and pro-Israel comments by Israeli actress Gadot.

Critics were also unimpressed with the live-action remake, with reviews coming in just 43 per cent 'fresh' on Rotten Tomatoes.

Snow White opened in the US with a worse total than 'Dumbo', a $46million opening in 2019; and well shy of 'Cinderella', which took $68million in 2015.

The result will likely add to questions over Disney's long-term strategy of mining its vault for live-action remakes - with upcoming new versions of 'Moana' and 'Tangled' in the pipeline, and a live-action 'Lilo & Stitch' launching in May.

Efforts to modernise 'Snow White' quickly ran afoul – with actor Peter Dinklage criticising the remake plans in 2022 as 'backward.'

Disney also decided to drop 'and the Seven Dwarfs' from the original's title, and animate the dwarfs – while Delays and reshoots also ran up costs.