Angelina Jolie has starred in many projects, and one of them became a streaming hit during the past weekend. Since her career began in 1982, the award-winning actress has appeared in many films, including those aimed at younger audiences, such as the Kung Fu Panda franchise. And recently, one of them became a massive box-office hit and received recognition at the Academy Awards.
In 2014, Jolie starred in Maleficent, a live-action dark fantasy film based on the 1959 Disney animated feature, Sleeping Beauty, which originated from one of Charles Perrault’s fairy tales. Jolie plays the evil fairyMaleficent, the creature who placed the sleeping curse on Princess Aurora (Elle Fanning) as a baby, and who can only be awakened by true love’s kiss. Unlike the animated feature and the original story, the film follows Maleficent’s point of view, how she became the evil sorceress, and how she befriends Aurora before the day the princess pricks her finger.
Over the weekend, Maleficent continued its reign on Disney+ streaming charts, recently ranking #10 on Disney+’s Top 10 Movies in the United States, below Thumbelina. However, Saturday was the last day Maleficent reigned in the Top 10 as it left the streaming charts by Sunday. Since its release, Maleficent has become a massive hit, grossing over $759.8 million worldwide, and was recognized at the Academy Awards, receiving a nomination for “Best Costume Design.” Its success led to the release of the 2019 sequel, titled Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, which, unfortunately, didn’t match the box office performance of its predecessor but was highly praised by audiences, earning a 90% score.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don’t just entertain — they leave something behind.
02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?
03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
05
What do you want from a film’s ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what’s even possible.
07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
Is ‘Maleficent’ Worth Watching?
Maleficent received mixed reviews from critics, earning a 54% score on the Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes, but it was well received by audiences, earning a 70% score on the Popcornmeter. Additionally, it received a 3.3-star rating on Letterboxd. According to critics, Jolie’s performance as the Sleeping Beauty villain was praised, as it helped save this film during its release, but some believed that her talent could have been used more effectively. Some also argued that the movie was a letdown, didn’t live up to Jolie’s star power, and that the story could have been better. However, audiences claimed that Maleficent is one of Disney’s “best live action movies of all time” and that it made the Sleeping Beauty story make sense. It was also praised for reimagining a classic fairy tale, but wished it delved deeper into Maleficent’s evil nature, making her a complex character rather than “making her relatable.”
Maleficent is available to stream on Disney+. Follow Collider for more updates.
