Although Disney’s plans really went south with the failure of Tomorrowland at the box offices, as we mentioned in our previous article, Disney is still far away from a sorry financial state as a company. Tomorrowland was the studio’s first flop since 2013 movie, The Lone Ranger, but after that Disney closed a really good financial year in 2014.
One of the reasons for the good results was Maleficent, which told the classic tale of Aurora from the perspective of the antagonist of the well-known story, Maleficent, hence the title of the movie. Maleficent was portrayed by Angelina Jolie, who was quoted several times, that her favorite Disney character had been Maleficent, and she was really excited to play her in the movie.
Critics were really split about the movie, which received 49% fresh reviews on rottentomatoes.com, but the numbers spoke for themselves. The movie cost only $180 million to make, but it grossed over $758 million worldwide, so the announcement of a sequel was only a matter of time. Now Linda Woolverton, the screenwriter of Maleficent, is returning to write the script for the sequel,
It is quite unimaginable to make Maleficent 2 without Ms. Jolie, but let's not forget that the actress is not really a fan of sequels, as she reportedly turned down the role to return in Salt 2 or Wanted 2, though neither of those movies were that much of a success, box office wise.
Since the trends show that original ideas are major risks nowadays in Hollywood, Disney will do whatever it can, and pay a lot of money, to convince Ms. Jolie to reprise her role as Maleficent.
There’s no word about Elle Fanning, the actress that played Aurora in Maleficent, either. Since Ms. Jolie plays such an integral part of the story, it would be understandable if Disney contacted the other actors and actresses only after Ms.
Jolie joined the board.
Making live-action movies out of the classic Disney tales has been quite a successful approach for Disney. Before Maleficent, Alice in Wonderland grossed over $1 billion in 2010 and Cinderella tallied more than $532 million this year with only a $95 million budget.
