‘Maleficent’ becomes Angelina Jolie’s highest grossing movie at half a billion dollars
The fairytale flick has a storybook ending for the actress, passing the
$500 million box office milestone worldwide to pass her previous best, 2005’s
‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith.’
Angelina Jolie’s ‘Maleficent’ is the
highest-grossing movie of the actress’s career, with $520 million, and
counting, in worldwide box office sales.
Angelina
Jolie's "Maleficent" held its spell on moviegoers last weekend,
flying past the $500 million mark to set a new record for the actress.
The
fairytale flick — a live-action blockbuster that reimagines Disney's
"Sleeping Beauty" from the sorceress' point of view — earned another
$13 million during its fourth week in U.S. theaters to top $520 million in
worldwide box office sales.
Jolie's
previous best was the 2005 movie "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," which took
in $478.2 million and co-starred her fiancé, Brad Pitt.
"Maleficent"
was a passion project for Jolie, 39, who said she was ready to try something
big and "bold" that her six kids — Maddox, 12, Pax, 10, Zahara, 9,
Shiloh, 8, Knox, 5, and Vivienne, 5 — could watch and enjoy.
Angelina
Jolie reacts as she arrives at the Japan premiere of ‘Maleficent.'
"I
wanted to have fun and explore different art and performance in a way I hadn't
done," she said at a press event last month.
Jolie
said she was profoundly "moved" by the script by "The Lion
King" writer Linda Woolverton, which turns the title character Maleficient
into a powerful heroine who bonds with a gutsy Aurora and rescues her in a
surprising twist.
"I
actually got really emotional when I finished it, and I thought it was one of
the best scripts I'd read in a long time because of the issues it dealt with.
And I thought it was in fact an important story to tell," she said
The
gorgeous, globe-trotting humanitarian said she wasn't even sure she wanted to
return to acting after her directorial debut with "In the Land of Blood
and Honey" in 2011.
She
said "Maleficent" captured her imagination because it "wasn't
anything normal."
"It
was such a crazy idea, and I was so challenged by it. And my kids are now all
watching all these movies and wanting to play with mommy, and it was perfect
timing to have them all on set, playing, being a part of the adventure with me,
and for me as an actress, to not do something where I'm taking myself so
seriously," she said.
Angelina Jolie in a scene with her daughter, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt.
"The
artist in me felt it's good to do something bold every once in a while, that
you're not comfortable with, haven't done. And I was a bit nervous to take her
on. I just thought, you know, I don't have a big theater voice. I don't do
things that are kind of comedic. This is such a crazy idea. I'm a fairy!"
she said.
She
said it was indeed a family affair, with her youngest daughter playing Aurora.
"She
was good. The first day was the day she had to catch the butterfly, and she
just really didn't feel like doing it. So, I actually was holding the pole with
the ball on the end, bouncing up and down and kind of dancing, trying to make
her laugh. And daddy (Pitt) was on the edge of the cliff she had to jump off,
kind of like making faces and doing all this stuff," Jolie recalled with a
laugh.
The actress' previous record was the 2005 action comedy, ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith,’ which generated $478.2 million.
"She
eventually did it, but she was taking her sweet time, and not wanting to do it
twice, certainly," she recalled, referring to Vivienne.
"Then
when we got to our scene, we kind of practiced it a little bit at home,"
Jolie said. "I'd say like, 'Okay, I'm gonna say go away, and you try to,
you know, get back.' So by the time we did that one, we did it together, we had
a good time, we played together. I was actually shocked that she was doing so
well. You know, inside I thought, 'Ohhh, she went back and hit her mark.'
That's frightening."
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