14 DAY TRIAL // Angelina Jolie is proof that star-power still counts when it comes to helping a movie become a box office success. You can have all the viral marketing that you want, or all the word-of-mouth needed, a good director and writer, but nothing will sell a movie like an A-lister headlining a project.
“Maleficent,” based on the story of the famous villain, opened last Friday and, from figures made available to Ace Showbiz, it ruled the box office, with a $70 million (€51.4 million) domestic gross. It made another $100.6 million (€73.9 million) in international markets.
The other newcomer, the star-studded comedy “A Million Ways to Die in the West,” was a vast disappointment, with just $17.1 million (€12.5 million) in ticket sales. Charlize Theron’s rape comments, in which she compared reading gossip about her personal life to rape, did not help spread the buzz online for the film.
“X-Men: Days of Future Past” is still clinging tightly to the top positions, slipping only to number 2. “Godzilla” came in at number 4, while “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” fell to number 7.
With such a tally, “Maleficent” has become Jolie’s biggest debut in her career, topping even “Kung Fu Panda,” in which she does voice work, and the famous “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” on the set of which she and current fiancé Brad Pitt allegedly became lovers.
Disney attributes the solid debut to the girls and mothers in the audience, with Disney’s distribution chief Dave Hollis saying, “To be able to take something like Sleeping Beauty and come at it from a different angle is intriguing. Then when you can lay on the Disney brand and a star like Angelina Jolie, and you have all the ingredients.”