Weekend Box Office

1. The Fault in Our Stars- $48.2 million (opening weekend)
2. Maleficent- $33.5 million / -51% / $127.3 million total
3. Edge of Tomorrow- $29.1 million (opening weekend)
4. X-Men: Days of Future Past- $14.7 million / -54% / $189.1 million total
5. A Million Ways to Die in the West- $7.1 million / -57% / $30 million total
6. Godzilla- $5.9 million / -50% / $185 million total
7. Neighbors- $5.2 million / -35% / $137.8 million total
8. Blended- $4 million / -50% / $36.5 million total
9. Chef- $2.6 million / +36% / $10.3 million total
10. Million Dollar Arm- $1.8 million / -49% / $31.1 million total

FURTHER DOWN
Belle- $0.7 / -39% / $7.5 million total
The Other Woman- $0.4 / -65% / $82.2 million total
Captain America: The Winter Soldier- $0.4 / -30% / $255.8 million total
Words & Pictures- $0.2 / +276% / $0.5 total
The Grand Budapest Hotel- $0.2 / -36% / $57.7 million total
Ida- $0.2 / -4% / $1.2 million total
Obvious Child- $0.08 (opening weekend)- $27,000 per screen
Night Moves- $0.05 / +135% / $0.08 total
Only Lovers Left Alive- $0.02 / -50% / $1.6 million total

Oy!  Things are mighty strange in movie theater land when a Tom Cruise action flick gets trounced at the box office by a teen weepie and the second weekend of Angelina Jolie's Maleficent.  While it's great that "women's pictures" ruled the box office two weeks running (hopefully the online think pieces on the subject won't be too nauseating), I have to personally give Edge of Tomorrow a little bit of credit-- it's more lithe and fun than it has any right to be, plus Emily Blunt is a total badass, so there.

What did you see this weekend?

Angelina Jolie as Maleficent

In the canon of Disney evils, Maleficent ranks with the best of them.  Here's the first taste of Angelina Jolie in full costume for the 2014 live action re-staging of Sleeping Beauty directed by Robert Stromberg, who famously won back to back Art Directions Academy Awards for Avatar and Alice in Wonderland.  Simply titled Maleficent, Jolie stars alongside Elle Fanning as Princess Aurora and Sharlto Copley (District 9.)  I'm worried as a whole, but the casting of Jolie is pure genius, for she is simply terrific portraying a cartoon-- what with her curves, seductive line readings, and over-the-top celebrity-- she is a cartoon.  That's meant as a compliment.