Only two of the six Disney live-action remakes here made blockbuster money. The Lion King (2019) and Aladdin (2019) both topped $1 billion worldwide. Cruella doubled its budget, The Little Mermaid cleared its costs with little to spare, Mulan‘s U.S. theatrical release was cancelled, and 2025’s Snow White lost Disney an estimated $170 million, per Forbes. Here are the six in release order, with the budget, box office and critic score for each.
Updated October 30, 2026.
Disney has run the same play for most of the last decade. Take a cartoon people love, swap in real-looking fur or a live cast, and sell it back to the people who grew up on it. Fans of the original show up on opening weekend. Critics judge the new one on its own and mark it down for having no reason to exist except nostalgia. If you’ve ever watched a remake of a movie you loved, you know it can be fun and still not feel like the first time.
Most of these remakes are copies, and copies rarely find the magic of the original. Still, Disney’s own numbers show people will show up when the nostalgia is strong enough: 2025’s Lilo & Stitch remake also passed $1 billion worldwide.
Disney has been telling these stories for a long time. Brothers Walt and Roy Disney started the company in 1923, and the 1928 cartoon Steamboat Willie helped make Mickey Mouse a star. By the 1950s it had added live-action movies, TV and theme parks. In the 1990s, under CEO Michael Eisner, its cartoons had a big comeback that people now call the Disney Renaissance. Disney bought Pixar in 2006, then Marvel and Lucasfilm, and launched Disney+ in 2019. With all that success, plenty of fans say the remakes feel like playing it safe.
Lion King (2019)
Production Budget: $250 million to $260 million
Worldwide Gross: $1.66 billion
Domestic Gross: $543.6 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 52% (434 reviews)
Plot: This version uses computer animation that looks like real nature footage. It follows Simba from cub to king. After his uncle Scar kills his father Mufasa, Simba runs away. He ends up with two new friends, Timon and Pumbaa, and a carefree life in a lush jungle hideaway. Years later he goes back to take the Pridelands from Scar’s rule.
Why it’s here: At $1.66 billion worldwide, it ranks 14th on Wikipedia’s list of the highest-grossing films ever made. Its 52% Rotten Tomatoes score, the lowest on this list apart from Snow White, set the pattern every later remake followed. It is a very faithful copy that drew a crowd but left most critics asking why it needed to exist. Anyone who grew up on the 1994 cartoon can hum the songs without trying, and that is a lot to live up to. Watch it for the technical work, then watch the 1994 original to feel satisfied.
Aladdin (2019)
Production Budget: $183 million
Worldwide Gross: $1.05 billion
Domestic Gross: $356.6 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 57% (386 reviews)
Plot: Will Smith’s Genie grants Aladdin three wishes. Aladdin is a street kid who wants to win Princess Jasmine and stop the vizier Jafar from taking her father’s throne. The Genie has rules: he cannot kill anyone, bring back the dead or make anyone fall in love. Aladdin tries to win Jasmine with fancy, flashy things.
Why it’s here: Critics liked Smith, whom Variety’s Peter Debruge credited with bringing “fresh attitude” to the Genie, even after the blue CGI version became a meme. Like Lion King, most of the complaints came from people tired of Disney not trying anything new. The remake is fun and good to look at, but it never finds the magic of the 1992 original. It still crossed $1 billion worldwide, one of only two films on this list to do it.
Mulan (2020)
Production Budget: $200 million (reported)
Worldwide Gross: $69.9 million total box office
Rotten Tomatoes: 71% (326 reviews)
Plot: Mulan lives in a society where women have little say. When raiders from the North threaten China, her father is called to join the Imperial Army. She secretly takes his place, disguised as a man, to fight the invading Rouran forces, even though women are not allowed to serve.
Why it’s here: Disney cancelled the U.S. theatrical release when COVID-19 closed cinemas. Most of us remember how strange that time was, with movie theaters shut and everyone watching at home. Instead Disney sold the film as a $29.99 Disney+ Premier Access rental from September 4, 2020, then made it free to all subscribers on December 4. Against a reported $200 million budget, it earned about $70 million at the box office worldwide, all of it outside the U.S. Critics were kind, at 71% on Rotten Tomatoes, the second-best score of the six. Audiences were not: its Popcornmeter sits at 46%. Many viewers missed the songs from the cartoon. They also found the tone darker and felt there was more spectacle than story about the characters.
Cruella (2021)
Production Budget: $100 million
Worldwide Gross: $233.5 million
Domestic Gross: $86.1 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 75% (415 reviews)
Plot: Loosely based on Dodie Smith’s novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, the film tells how Estella, a young fashion designer, turns into the future Cruella de Vil in London’s 1970s punk scene.
Why it’s here: Cruella holds the best Rotten Tomatoes score on this list, 75%, and its $233.5 million worldwide gross more than doubled its $100 million budget. It also went up on Disney+ Premier Access on May 28, 2021, the same day it opened in theaters, so Disney collected from both at once. That made it a test case for which films belong in theaters and which belong on the streamer.
Little Mermaid (2023)
Production Budget: $240.2 million (net, per Forbes)
Worldwide Gross: $569.6 million
Domestic Gross: $298.2 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 67% (349 reviews)
Plot: Ariel is curious about the human world above the water, but her strict father forbids her to explore it. She makes a deal with the sea witch Ursula, trading her voice for legs. She can finally walk among humans, but without her voice she cannot speak for herself.
Why it’s here: At $569.6 million worldwide against a $240.2 million net budget, the film cleared its costs but fell well short of the $1 billion marks set by Lion King and Aladdin. Many viewers found it bloated, padded with extra subplots the 1989 original never needed. By 2023, many fans were also tired of the steady stream of remakes. Disney said it wanted to bring these old tales to a wider audience, but that message did not land with a lot of people. It wasn’t a terrible movie. It just added to the feeling that Disney had run out of new ideas. Its 67% Rotten Tomatoes score sits in the middle of this list.
Snow White (2025)
Production Budget: $336.5 million gross budget ($271.6 million net)
Worldwide Gross: $205.7 million
Domestic Gross: $87.2 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 39% (277 reviews)
Plot: Snow White flees her stepmother’s rule and is sheltered by seven CGI characters modeled on the 1937 dwarfs. The stepmother tricks her into eating a poisoned apple. She is woken from an enchanted sleep near the end, this time without needing a prince to do it.
Why it’s here: Snow White, released March 21, 2025, is the clearest financial failure on this list. It earned $205.7 million worldwide against a reported $336.5 million gross budget. Forbes put Disney’s loss at about $170 million, while Deadline estimated around $115 million. Its 39% Rotten Tomatoes score and 50 on Metacritic are the lowest of the six, though opening audiences gave it a B+ CinemaScore.
The arguments around this film drowned out the Brothers Grimm story it was meant to tell. Anyone who has watched an online fight take over a conversation knows how the real subject can get lost. Rachel Zegler’s public criticism of the 1937 original made headlines, as did Peter Dinklage’s 2022 objection to the dwarfs and Disney’s reply that it was taking “a different approach.” Zegler and co-star Gal Gadot also held opposing views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which drew boycott calls from both political sides. More than 91% of its IMDb reviews were one star, enough for IMDb to post a review-bombing notice. It did better at home: it debuted at the top of U.S. streaming charts when it reached Disney+.
Frequently Asked Questions About Disney’s Live-Action Remakes
Which Disney live-action remake made the most money?
The Lion King (2019) grossed $1.66 billion worldwide, the most of any Disney live-action remake released since 2019. Aladdin (2019) is the only other film on this list to cross $1 billion, at $1.05 billion worldwide.
Which Disney live-action remake has the best Rotten Tomatoes score?
Of these six, Cruella holds the best score, 75% from 415 critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Mulan is second at 71%, despite its pandemic-disrupted release.
Why didn’t Mulan (2020) get a full U.S. theatrical release?
COVID-19 closed U.S. theaters before Mulan‘s scheduled release, so Disney sold it directly through Disney+ Premier Access starting September 4, 2020, for a one-time $29.99 fee. It became free to all Disney+ subscribers on December 4, 2020.
Did Disney’s live-action Snow White remake lose money?
Yes. Snow White earned $205.7 million worldwide against a reported $336.5 million gross production budget. Forbes estimated Disney lost about $170 million on the film, and Deadline put the loss near $115 million. It did better on Disney+, where it debuted at the top of U.S. streaming charts.
For more on the movies, see Top 10 Cult Classic Films and What To Watch: Fall Film Lineup.