Angelina Jolie as an evil queen will trump the Seth MacFarlane ode to the Old West.
The summer box office battle is already heating up, with a Disney fantasy set to take on a raunchy western. Maleficent, starring Angelina Jolie as a scorned queen, is expected to rule the weekend while A Million Ways to Die in the West will have to settle for third place.
Disney’s PG-rated live-action take on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale will open in 3,948 locations on Friday, including 3D and IMAX theaters. Despite mixed reviews, Maleficent is projected to take in $58 million in its debut weekend.
Keith Staskiewicz of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B-, saying: “The characters are boiled down to their essentials, the humor is timelessly broad, and Jolie’s at her best when she’s curling her claws and elongating her vowels like a black-sabbath Tallulah Bankhead. Unfortunately, the story is more than a bit of a muddle, a string of sequences that shuttle the characters back and forth between the film’s sole two locations, a castle and a magic forest.”
Poor reviews are not likely to keep families away from a brand-new Disney movie, so Maleficent is certain to rank at the top of the box office charts this weekend, far ahead of the competition.
The major debut from last weekend, X-Men: Days of Future Past is expected to drop more than 50 percent, coming in at second place with $40 million. The film has already made more than $346.4 million worldwide.
That brings us to the other major debut of the weekend, A Million Ways to Die in the West. This R-rated ode to the Old West directed by Seth MacFarlane depends on a star-studded cast and crude humor to draw in audiences. Big names in starring roles include Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi and Neil Patrick Harris, plus several high-profile cameos. Unfortunately, the film has not gotten great reviews and has a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 39 percent, which is why A Million Ways to Die in the West is projected to bring in just $25 million in its first week for a third place finish.
Rounding out the top five will be Godzilla, which is expected to take a 60 percent drop and bring in another $10 million to take fourth place. Coming in fifth could be Blended with $7 million in weekend two or Neighbors, now entering its fourth weekend.
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