Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent has debuted at the top of the North American box office, taking $70 million.
Maleficent, based on the villain from Sleeping Beauty, has given Angelina Jolie her biggest box office debut to date.
Last weekend’s number one, X-Men: Days of Future Past, dropped to second.
The movie took $32.6 million.
The weekend’s second highest new entry was Seth MacFarlane’s Western comedy, A Million Ways to Die in the West, starring Liam Neeson, Charlize Theron and Amanda Seyfried.
But it was a weak opening – $17.1 million – when compared with Seth McFarlane’s Ted, which opened with $54.4 million in 2012.
Despite its success, Maleficent could not match the financial power of Disney’s other recent re-imagined fairytales, Alice in Wonderland – which opened with $116m in 2010 – and Oz the Great and Powerful, which took $79 million in its debut weekend last year.
Maleficent, directed by Robert Stromber – the production designer on Alice in Wonderland and Oz the Great and Powerful, received mixed reviews from critics.
North American box office Top 5:
- Maleficent – $70 million
- X-Men: Days of Future Past – $32.6 million
- A Million Ways to Die in the West – $17.1 million
- Godzilla – $12.2 million
- Blended – $8.4 million
Source: Rentrak
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