deadline
BOX OFFICE PREVIEW: Disney’s ‘Maleficent’ Opens To Magnificent $4.2M Late Nights; Seth MacFarlane’s ‘A Million Ways To Die In The West’ Looks To Tonight’s Numbers
| Friday May 30, 2014 @ 9:00am PDTUPDATED: FRIDAY, 9:00 AM:
Maleficent opened last night and conjured up a magnificent $4.2M for Disney, readying for the weekend box office blast by clearly bringing in the adult audience. It has been tracking anywhere between $60M to $70M and now you can bet on the high end (maybe $68M). Maleficent grossed above the $3.9M that Alice in Wonderland grossed in 2010 when it bowed at midnight and also the $2M gross at 9 p.m. with Oz: The Great and Powerful, which ended up with an opening weekend of $79.1M (but that was a better picture).
IMAX is estimating that it took in 13.3% of that $4.2M late night gross or about $560K. X-Men didn’t have the benefit of IMAX last weekend because Godzilla had a stronghold on those screens; they did have large formats though via other exhibs.
Disney sold the picture on a trailer that clearly made it seem too scary for small children, but the kids I was in the theater with on Wednesday night seemed to enjoy it. The five and six year olds were a bit frightened. It’s a great start to the weekend for this picture. Will be interesting to see what kind of CinemaScore it gets tonight. Right now, Disney’s in-house research shows that the film skewing 54% female and 46% male.
...
Enough about Seth, what about Angie who is the most watchable character in the movie. Anecdotally, Maleficent is No. 5 behind The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Godzilla, Neighbors and X-Men: Days of Future Past in terms of social media activity over the past 30 days, according to RelishMix which tracks social engagement of the Big Three (Facebook, YouTube and Twitter). “Fans are engaged with Maleficent YouTube trailers up to an earned/owned ratio of 11 to 1, showing growing intent especially for a family movie,” says RelishMix CEO Marc Karzen. On Facebook and Twitter, Angelina Jolie’s fans are looking for Brad Pitt being socked on the red carpet by the idiot, attention-seeking Ukranian.
Fandango reports that its pre-sales are outselling Maleficent producer Joe Roth’s Oz: The Great and Powerful which opened in March of last year as well as Snow White and the Huntsman (which Uni opened June 1, 2012) at the same point in the sales cycle. This looks like its gonna be two out of three for Roth so far … although Million Dollar Arm didn’t perform as anyone would have liked at Disney, Sony’s Heaven is For Real from filmmaker Randall Wallace is already up to $87.2M and still playing out. Oz: The Great and Powerful ended up with $493.3M worldwide (split pretty evenly between domestic and international) in 2013. Is it any wonder that Disney and Roth are doing a sequel?
Angelina Jolie's 'Maleficent' Conjures Strong $4.2 Million at Thursday Night Box Office http://t.co/vrcCduqjNY
— TheWrap (@TheWrap) May 30, 2014
thewrap
That's better than “Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Oz: The Great and Powerful’
Angelina's Jolie's “Maleficent” cast a $4.2 million spell in its box office opening Thursday night.
That's better than the $3.9 million that “Alice in Wonderland” took in as part of its $116 million debut in March of 2010. and the $2 million that “Oz: The Great and Powerful” took in from early screenings on its way to a $79 million opening last March. The “Maleficent” showings began at 7 p.m.
By Friday night, Disney's live-action 3D update of its 1954 animated classic “Sleeping Beauty”will be in nearly 4,000 theaters in North America, with the majority 3D and 346 IMAX. It also debuts this weekend in 47 foreign markets, including the U.K., Australia and Mexico.
Also read: The Most and Least Liked Summer Movie Actresses – Jennifer Lawrence, Angelina Jolie, Mila Kunis, Shailene Woodley
Jolie's turn as the Mistress of All Evil is her first live-action starring role in four years, and “Maleficent” is expected to bring in more than $60 million this weekend. If the projections are right, “Maleficent” will be Jolie's biggest box-office opening ever, ahead of the $50.9 million put up by “Wanted” in 2008.
That would knock Fox and Marvel's mutant mashup “X-Men: Days of Future Past” out of the top spot after one week and easily best the weekend's other wide opener, “A Million Ways to Die in the West.” Seth MacFarlane's R-rated cowboy comedy is projected to take in $25 million for Universal and Media Rights Capital.
Also read: ‘Maleficent’ Reviews: Angelina Jolie Delivers – But Does the Rest of the Movie?
Robert Stromberg is making his directing debut on “Maleficent,” after serving as the production designer on “Avatar,” “Alice in Wonderland” and “Oz the Great and Powerful.” Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley and Juno Temple co-star.
Jolie is the producer on the $180 million “Maleficent,” along with Joe Roth, who was behind “Alice in Wonderland,” “Oz: The Great and Powerful” and “Snow White and the Huntsman.”
thr
Box Office: 'Maleficent' Enchants With $4.2M Thursday Night; Nabs $20.1M Overseas
Seth MacFarlane's R-rated Western comedy "A Million Ways to Die in the West" earns $891,000 as it begins rolling out in North America.
Angelina Jolie's live-action fairy tale Maleficent is enchanting audiences, grossing a pleasing $4.2 million Thursday night in North America from more than 3,000 theaters. Overseas, the Disney tentpole has earned $20.1 million in its first two days.Box-office observers believe Maleficent -- featuring Jolie as the infamous sorceress from Sleeping Beauty -- will benefit greatly from targeting girls and moms, as well as families, considering the glut of male-skewing tentpoles in the marketplace (Days of Future Past, Godzilla and The Amazing Spider-Man 2). Elle Fanning plays Princess Aurora in the 3D movie, which comes on the heels of Disney's femme-fueled global Frozen and marks Jolie's first appearance in theaters in four years.
Maleficent bested the $3.9 million earned in midnight runs by fellow Disney movie Alice in Wonderland and the $2 million grossed by Oz the Great and Powerful last year upon rolling out at 9 p.m.
STORY: Tom Cruise’s 'Edge of Tomorrow' Tests Overseas Star Power as U.S. Tracking Soft
Disney noted that plenty of adults turned out Thursday night for Maleficent, and that 46 percent of ticket buyers were male.
Overseas, Maleficent began rolling out Wednesday, grossing a strong $20.1 million in its first two days from 35 territories, including Russia, Germany, Australia, the U.K., Korea and Brazil.
Disney's Maleficent has a strong shot at crossing $60 million in its domestic launch and pushing holdover X-Men: Days of Future Past out of the top perch at the box office. The movie is not a cheap proposition, having cost $175 million to produce after reshoots (there was reportedly tension between Jolie and first-time feature director Robert Stromberg).
