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Re-release every seven years
Disney stumbled onto the cadence in 1944. Cash was tight, no new films could be made during the war, and Snow White had not been seen in seven years, since there was no home video or television. Putting it back in theaters brought in $3 million for a few hundred thousand dollars of cost, mostly the prints. Theaters and distributors took their usual cuts, but the film had already been paid for.
Seven years is long enough for a new set of children to reach movie age and short of the point where the film feels overexposed. By the 1951 re-release, the potential audience had grown by 25 million children who were unborn or too young to attend in 1944.
Animated fairy tales suit the approach because they do not date. The cadence still holds: Frozen came out in 2013, Frozen 2 in 2019, and Frozen 3 is slated for 2027.
How did people see old films before video?
Studios reissued films to theaters, often with new advertising. Prints were rebooked market by market, and each run reached viewers who had never seen the film. Television later brought old films into living rooms. Snow White did not reach home video until 1994.
Why do fairy tales never go out of style?
Fairy tales rest on stories that have been told for centuries, with settings that do not tie them to a decade. Snow White comes from a tale in the Brothers Grimm collection, first published in 1812. Costumes and castles stay familiar to each new generation. Audiences meet the story as new even when parents saw it before.
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