‘Maleficent’ tops US box office despite middling reviews
The sequel failed to recapture the allure of the first film
The box office was dominated by villains and sequels as Disney and Buena Vista’s ‘Maleficent: Mistress of Evil’ toppled ‘Joker’ from the top spot after two weekends of dominance.
The $185 million (Dh679.4 million) film, which stars Angelina Jolie as the titular ‘Sleeping Beauty’ sorceress, opened with a disappointing $36 million, well below analyst projections of $45 million to $50 million, according to estimates from measurement firm Comscore. Internationally it earned $117 million for a global cumulative of $153 million.
It earned a mixed reception with an A CinemaScore but a 41 per cent “rotten” rating on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.
A follow-up to 2014’s ‘Maleficent,’ the sequel failed to recapture the allure of the first film, which opened with $69.4 million in North America on its way to $758 million in global ticket sales. The result may reflect fatigue among moviegoers of Disney’s live-action remakes, following underperformers such as ‘Dumbo’ and ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass.’