Kristen Stewart Could Have Saved ‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’ From Box Office Flop, ‘Twilight’ Fans Boycott Prequel?

The Huntsman: Winter’s War debuted to $1 million when it first opened last Thursday night. A week since the premiere, the Charlize Theron film raked in approximately $102.68 million in worldwide box office. Many reports suggest that the sequel flopping could be attributed to losing Kristen Stewart’s dedicated fan base. The reviews are also less than stellar as the Snow White and the Huntsman prequel currently has a 17 percent “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

In its opening weekend, The Huntsman: Winter’s War brought in less than half of Snow White and The Huntsman, with $20.8 million compared to the latter’s $56.2 million opening weekend back in June of 2012. According to Forbes, in spite of the scandal between Kristen Stewart and film director Rupert Sanders, Universal should have brought the Twilight actress back and focused the sequel/prequel on Snow White’s story instead.

Box Office: Leaving #KristenStewart‘s Snow White Out Of #TheHuntsman Was A Mistake via @forbes by @ScottMendelson https://t.co/OuCViOU8Xc

— Scott Mendelson (@ScottMendelson) April 25, 2016

The author pointed out that The Huntsman: Winter’s War lost its appeal by focusing on Chris Hemsworth as the lead. Even with a stellar cast that included Charlize Theron, Jessica Chastain, and Emily Blunt, the film did not exactly excite the audience, particularly those who were looking forward to seeing a strong female lead. Snow White and the Huntsman undoubtedly became one of the most talked about films in 2012 since it starred a famous woman in a big-budget action movie, which was previously reserved for only A-list actors.

With the prequel focusing on the prince, Forbes held that it, in a way, “repelled the female viewers it presumably targeted.”

“Huntsman became merely one of many, no different to the average moviegoer than Seventh Son or Eragon.”

By pulling Kristen Stewart from The Huntsman: Winter’s War, it goes without saying that the film lost her dedicated fanbase in the process. Although Hemsworth definitely has a fanbase of his own, the outlet explained that it was not enough to draw in enough audience for the prequel. Arguably, some of the Twilight fans may have lost interest in Stewart — it’s been four years since the last movie came out — but we cannot discount the fact that they were curious to see the actress again in an action blockbuster.

While Snow White and the Huntsman drew mixed reviews back in 2012, Yahoo Movies reported that within days of release, Universal announced that it was fast-tracking a sequel. With the mediocre performance in the box office of the prequel, we can only assume that this will be the last movie in the franchise.

Multiple reports previously suggested that there was not enough hype to do more movies for Snow White, but Universal moved forward with another one. Had the Kristen Stewart-Rupert Sanders affair not happened, Forbes suggested that the second movie could have focused on Stewart and Hemsworth as they go on another adventure.

“It would have made the film (sadly still) unique in a male-driven marketplace and made an easier sell regarding just what the movie was,” Scott Mendelson explained.

According to Variety, The Huntsman: Winter’s War could potentially lose Universal as much as $70 million. In order to break even, the film reportedly had to earn $325 million, a figure the outlet believes they will not hit. It also did not help that they were up against Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book, whose popularity seemed to increase by the strong reviews the film is receiving online.

“The movie wasn’t very good. Emily Blunt, Charlize Theron, and Chris Hemsworth are all good actors, but you don’t have anyone who is really a bankable lead,” MKM Partners analyst Eric Handler said.

Tell us! Have you seen The Huntsman: Winter’s War? Do you think it would have been better if Kristen Stewart was in it? Leave your comments down below.

[Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images]