The best blockbusters aren’t always the ones that make the most money, something we’ve been conditioned to learn by seeing just how many multi-billion dollar franchises have overcome terrible reviews to make big bank. Disney’s Maleficent wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t very good either, yet it still managed to bank $758 million globally.
It was also a hugely important film for the Mouse House, with Angelina Jolie’s star turn as the villain from Sleeping Beauty picking up from where Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland left off by busting blocks on all fronts, which in turn reinforced the notion that live-action remakes of animated classics were effectively a license to print money.
Despite earning a such a voluminous amount of cash, nobody ever talks about Maleficent anymore. Takings for sequel Mistress of Evil dropped by almost $300 million, but did you even know that a third installment is in active development? More importantly, do you actually care?
Whether you do or don’t, the studio has already counted its big piles of cash from the opener, which could be in the process of returning to relevance on streaming this weekend. As per FlixPatrol, Maleficent has spread its wings and soared on the Google Play Movies charts, which is an unexpected feather in its cap considering Robert Stromberg’s fantasy is nowhere to be found on the Disney Plus rankings.
It’s an almost $1.3 billion two-film series whichever way you want to cut it, so it doesn’t really matter that Maleficent has become a footnote in Disney history just eight years after first exploding on the scene.