Ch: 324 [Maleficent Released & Disney’s decision]
[Friday Night] [Los Angeles] [Maleficent Premiere]
The final image faded from the screen beneath a wash of gold credits, and the packed theater stayed completely still for several long seconds. The whole room seemed caught inside the dark, beautiful world Guillermo del Toro had built.
Then a man near the back stood and began clapping.
A few people joined him almost immediately. Then entire rows rose from their seats, until the applause rolled through the theater like thunder and everyone stood together.
Angelina sat beside Alex in the private premiere section with her hands folded tightly in her lap. She had lived with Maleficent for months through the filming, the reshoots, the voice work, and the endless promotional events. She knew every look, every wound, every moment of rage and heartbreak.
Still, hearing the audience react like this made her breath catch.
Alex watched her instead of the screen as he leaned closer. "You really did it, Ange."
Angelina looked at him with a small, emotional smile. "We all did it together, Alex. Guillermo gave it a world, you gave it a story, and everyone fought for it." She gave a small nod. "Thank you for giving me... us this chance."
Alex gently squeezed her hand and smiled.
Several rows ahead, a little girl wearing plastic black horns turned toward her mother. She pointed at the screen and whispered, "Mom, she was scary, but I loved her."
Angelina heard her clearly.
For a moment, she could not speak.
Alex noticed the way her shoulders relaxed and lifted her hand to his lips. "That little girl is going to remember this movie forever."
Across the aisle, Guillermo del Toro sat with his head slightly lowered, smiling like a man who had finally seen a dream survive the real world. His dark fairy tale had become enormous on screen, filled with haunted forests, broken castles, strange creatures, and enough fire to make every visual effects artist sweat for years.
Andrew Garfield leaned toward Amanda Seyfried as the applause continued. "I still can't believe we did that."
Amanda looked around at the cheering crowd and smiled. "Yeah, I'm just happy that everyone here loved it."
Andrew nodded. "Now, all we gotta do is wait for the reviews and box office. No pressure."
Amanda chuckled. "Yeah, no pressure."
Near the front, Saoirse Ronan sat beside Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, and Helena Bonham Carter. James McAvoy stood nearby with his hands in his pockets, looking proud and slightly stunned.
The premiere had barely ended, yet everyone inside the theater understood what had happened.
Titan has released another awesome fantasy movie.
---
[Saturday Morning] [The Reviews Begin]
By sunrise, entertainment websites, film critics, and trade reporters had flooded the internet with their first reactions.
Maleficent was already the biggest movie event of the year. Its budget was estimated at between $340 million and $370 million, making it one of the most expensive films released that year. The cast was equally massive, with Angelina Jolie, Saoirse Ronan, Amanda Seyfried, James McAvoy, Andrew Garfield, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, and Helena Bonham Carter all sharing the screen.
The early scores landed before noon.
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
IMDb: 9.1 out of 10
Metacritic: 86%
Clara Bennett of The Cinematic Review gave the film four and a half stars out of five.
"Angelina Jolie gives a performance that feels larger than the movie around her. Every glance carries threat, grief, longing, and pride. She turns Maleficent into a woman who feels dangerous because she has survived things that would have destroyed almost anyone else."
Clara also praised Guillermo's direction.
"Guillermo del Toro fills every frame with dark beauty. The Moors feel ancient, alive, and strange enough to exist long before humans tried to control them."
She gave Andrew Garfield special praise as well.
"Andrew Garfield makes Diaval far more than a clever sidekick. He brings warmth, humor, loyalty, and quiet sadness to the role, making him one of the film's strongest emotional anchors."
Daniel Ross of The Screen Ledger gave Maleficent an A-minus.
"Titan Studios has created a giant fantasy blockbuster with enough spectacle to fill ten movies, yet the strongest scenes are often the quietest ones. Angelina Jolie and Amanda Seyfried give the film its heart, while James McAvoy makes King Stefan's descent into obsession genuinely unsettling."
Daniel praised Saoirse Ronan's work as Young Aurora.
"Saoirse Ronan gives young Aurora a fierce little spirit. She makes innocence feel alive, curious, and stubborn instead of passive."
He also wrote about Amanda Seyfried.
"Amanda Seyfried gives adult Aurora a softness that never feels weak. Her kindness becomes one of the most powerful forces in the story."
Not every critic fully loved the movie.
Darren Pike of Silver Screen Weekly gave Maleficent a 6.5 out of 10.
"Angelina Jolie is extraordinary, and Guillermo del Toro's imagination remains unmatched. The middle section loses momentum in places, while the final act sometimes pushes the action harder than the story needs."
Darren still ended his review with clear admiration.
"Even with its flaws, Maleficent belongs on the big screen. Jolie alone makes the ticket worth buying."
Mina Park of The Critical Lens gave the film a seven out of ten.
"The scenes between Jolie and Seyfried have real emotional weight, and Andrew Garfield gives Diaval a surprising amount of soul. The Three Fairies occasionally feel like they belong to a lighter, more playful movie."
That comment immediately started arguments online.
Fans defended Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, and Helena Bonham Carter with unbelievable energy.
One viewer wrote, "The Three Fairies are supposed to be chaos. They are the only reason everyone in the audience did not need therapy by the end."
--
[YouTube Reaction]
By Saturday afternoon, YouTube had become a full Maleficent battlefield.
Reaction videos, scene breakdowns, costume reviews, fan edits, and emotional first-watch recordings appeared every few minutes.
The biggest early review came from Caleb Reed of Frame by Frame. His video, titled "Maleficent Was Better Than I Expected", crossed 1.8 million views before the day ended.
Caleb sat in front of a black backdrop with a giant Maleficent poster behind him. He leaned toward the camera and spoke with both hands moving in disbelief.
"Angelina Jolie didn't walk into this movie to play a villain," he said. "She walked in to create a woman made out of pain, anger, love, and survival. You never feel like she's asking the audience to forgive her. She makes you understand her anyway."
He paused for a second before pointing toward the camera.
"And Andrew Garfield as Diaval was amazing. I expected funny raven sidekick energy. Instead, I got a character with loyalty, grief, sarcasm, and enough emotional intelligence to carry half the cast."
His comment section exploded.
@MoonlitCinema wrote: "The wing scene broke me. I went in expecting fantasy action, and I walked out emotionally destroyed."
@AuroraDefenseSquad posted: "Amanda Seyfried deserves way more praise. Aurora could have been bland, but she made her feel brave, loving, and real."
@FilmNerdForever added: "James McAvoy was terrifying because Stefan felt human before he became a monster."
The most popular negative review came from The Basement Critic, whose video was called "Maleficent Is Beautiful, But It Has Problems."
He gave the movie a seven out of ten.
"The visuals are incredible, Angelina is operating on another level, and the cast is excellent," he said. "Still, the film occasionally gets so focused on being huge that the quieter moments lose space. Some scenes needed less fire, fewer explosions, and more breathing room."
His comments became a war zone.
@TitanForever replied: "Calling the movie too expensive is insane, because those visuals were worth every single dollar."
@PracticalEffectsGuy answered: "The movie cost nearly four hundred million dollars. People are allowed to ask whether every massive set piece actually helped the story."
@MaleficentCult wrote: "Angelina could stand in a forest for two hours and stare at a tree, and I would still buy a ticket."
Fan edits soon took over the platform.
One video used only Angelina's expressions, black wings, and the orchestral score. Another focused entirely on Diaval's transformations and Andrew's expressions during the quieter scenes.
The most-watched fan edit came from @WingsOfTheMoors. It crossed five million views in two days and ended with Maleficent looking at Aurora while the screen faded to black.
The final words read:
"She was never asking to be forgiven."
[Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace]
By Saturday night, Maleficent dominated every social media platform.
The biggest hashtags were everywhere.
#Maleficent
#AngelinaJolie
#TitanStudios
#Diaval
#TheDarkFairy
#TeamMaleficent
On Twitter, reactions poured in faster than Titan's media team could track.
@CinemaCora posted: "Angelina Jolie owned every shadow in that theater. That performance felt less like acting and more like a warning."
@NateReviewsFilms wrote: "Guillermo del Toro made a fairy tale look like a haunted cathedral. I need to see this movie again immediately."
@OldSchoolFantasyFan posted: "The middle dragged a little for me, though Angelina gave one of the best performances of the entire year."
@DiavalNation wrote: "Andrew Garfield as a raven man should not work this well, yet I would watch three Diaval movies tomorrow."
Facebook pages started creating polls.
One asked, "Who was your favorite character?"
Maleficent won by a massive margin.
Diaval came second.
Aurora came third.
Another poll asked whether Titan should make a sequel.
Ninety-four percent voted yes.
The remaining six percent filled the comments with demands for a Diaval spin-off.
On MySpace, teenagers changed their profile photos to black wings, horned silhouettes, glowing forests, and Angelina's Maleficent makeup. Several fan pages changed their music to tracks from the movie's score.
Titan's official merchandise site crashed twice.
The black horn headpieces sold out in three hours.
The Diaval raven pendants vanished before noon.
The Titan Noir Maleficent perfume set sold through its first production run in less than forty-eight hours.
Rachel saw the report in Los Angeles and said, "Increase production enough that nobody ever says we failed because we ran out of evil fairy horns."
The merchandise director looked up from his laptop. "How much of an increase are you authorizing?"
Rachel gave him a cold look. "Make enough horns for every teenager with a credit card. Also, contact the sales department and make sure to tell them to sell one item or a set per person. We gotta stop those scalpers."
---
[Reddit]
Reddit turned Maleficent into thousands of arguments, memes, theories, reviews, and essays about the hidden meaning behind every creature in the Moors.
The biggest thread appeared under the title:
"Maleficent Is the First Dark Fairy Tale Movie That Made Me Forget I Was Watching a Blockbuster."
u/OldGodsAndMovies wrote: "Angelina plays Maleficent like someone who has held herself together through rage for so long that she forgot what peace feels like. Then she has one quiet scene with Aurora, and suddenly the whole movie changes."
u/PracticalGoblin replied: "Andrew Garfield had no business making Diaval that good. I expected a funny sidekick, and I got Maleficent's conscience."
u/StefanWasRight offered a more critical opinion: "I liked the movie, but the script softens Maleficent a little too much near the ending. Angelina is incredible, though I wanted the story to lean on her darkness more."
u/ForestWitch responded: "The movie explains her pain without pretending she is innocent. That balance is why the ending works."
On r/Fantasy, viewers started discussing Guillermo del Toro's creature design.
u/Worldbuilder78 wrote: "The Moors creatures feel old. They feel like they existed long before humans started naming things, which makes the whole world feel bigger than the plot."
u/FairyTalePurist gave a thoughtful negative take: "I wanted more lore about the Moors and more time with the Three Fairies. The world feels massive, and the movie sometimes moves through its best ideas too quickly."
That comment became one of the highest-rated critical posts of the weekend.
It also started a fan campaign for an extended version.
The phrase "Release the Del Toro Cut" began appearing across several Reddit threads.
When someone showed Guillermo the phrase during a press event, he laughed and rubbed both hands over his face.
"People haven't even watched the normal version twice," he said. "They already want more forests, more monsters, and more trouble."
...
[Titan Forum]
Titan's official forum became completely unmanageable by Sunday morning.
The Maleficent section gained nearly two million new accounts in one weekend. Threads appeared faster than moderators could approve them, and the entire site became a mix of fan art, spoilers, theories, costume guides, and arguments about the Three Fairies.
HornedQueen2008 posted: "Angelina Jolie just gave the performance of her life. I will fight anyone who disagrees with a plastic horn."
DiavalDefenseLeague replied: "Andrew needs his own movie after this. Diaval is clearly hiding enough backstory for an entire trilogy."
FairyGodmother77 wrote: "Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, and Helena Bonham Carter were exactly the weird comedy energy this movie needed in between the grim dark tone."
TitanWatcher disagreed politely: "They were funny, but a few scenes felt too safe compared to the darker tone around Maleficent and Stefan."
A user called MoorsLawyer answered: "That opinion has been entered into evidence, and the jury has rejected it completely."
The biggest Titan Forum post had a title that soon spread across every other platform.
"Alex Wilson and Guillermo del Toro Just Changed Fairy Tale Fantasy Movies."
The original post came from TitanLoreMaster.
"Spider-Man changed superhero action. The Hobbit proved epic fantasy could dominate globally. Maleficent proves a fairy tale can feel dangerous, emotional, dark, and huge. Titan is collecting genres like infinity stones and reviving them."
Fans started predicting what Titan would do next.
Some wanted a Maleficent sequel.
Others wanted a Diaval origin film.
Some joked that Alex would eventually place Maleficent, Supergirl, Spider-Man, and Iron Man on one poster just to make every other studio panic.
...
[Celebrity Reactions]
By Sunday, celebrities began posting reactions.
Jennifer Lopez shared a red-carpet photo of Angelina beneath the premiere lights.
"Angelina was powerful, elegant, heartbreaking, and unforgettable. Congratulations to Guillermo, Alex, and the entire Titan family for making something beautiful."
Robert Downey Jr. posted after a late-night screening.
"Angelina Jolie raised the bar with Maleficent. Guillermo built a world, Alex gave it a pulse, and the cast made it magical."
Kate Winslet wrote:
"A grand performance can still feel intimate when the actor understands the heart beneath the spectacle. Angelina found every inch of that heart."
Henry Cavill posted:
"The flight sequences were incredible, and Andrew Garfield made Diaval much more than I expected. Congratulations to everyone involved. If they're making a sequel, I'd love to be a part of it."
Margot Robbie uploaded a picture of herself wearing novelty black horns.
"Apparently, this is my personality now. Angelina was unreal, and I need a sequel immediately."
Emma Stone wrote:
"Andrew Garfield as a raven man should not work as beautifully as it does, yet here we are. I loved the entire movie."
Zack Snyder sent Alex a private message after watching the film.
"Congratulations. You made a fairy tale feel mythic without losing the emotion, and that is harder than people realize."
Alex read the message before handing the phone to Angelina.
She looked down at the words for a moment, then placed the phone face down on the desk.
"People liked it," she said softly.
Alex looked at the reviews, the social media reactions, the fan art, and the rising box office estimates on Rachel's screen.
"People did more than like it, Ange," he said. "They fell in love with it."
...
[Monday morning] [Titan Studios]
Rachel entered Alex's office at 8:03 a.m. with a thick report in her hand and an expression that meant the news was either terrible or historic. She placed the file on his desk. "Read this before the trades get the full numbers."
Alex opened it and read the first page.
Then he read it again.
Opening Day: $70 million.
Domestic Opening Weekend: $193.4 million.
Global Opening Weekend: $287.6 million.
Alex looked up at Rachel with a calm face. "Well, considering the recession, those are respectable numbers for a modest little fantasy picture."
Rachel stared at him for two full seconds.
"Don't pretend this is normal," she said. "The finance team is crying, the marketing team is drinking champagne before noon, and three executives have asked whether they should buy larger office buildings."
Alex smiled as he turned the next page. "Tell them to wait until the full week settles before they start choosing carpet colors."
...
The final seven-day numbers arrived later that week.
First Seven Days, Domestic: $593.8 million.
Estimated Global Total After Delayed Reporting: More than $710 million.
Maleficent was on its way to becoming the biggest blockbuster of the year, beating The Hobbit's collection.
It had the big budget, the biggest cast, the strongest fantasy opening, and one of the largest first-week totals Hollywood had seen in years.
Trade headlines appeared within minutes.
"MALEFICENT IS ON ITS WAY TO BECOME THE YEAR'S BIGGEST FILM."
"ANGELINA JOLIE POWERS TITAN'S LATEST GLOBAL MONSTER."
"GUILLERMO DEL TORO DELIVERS A FANTASY EPIC AT HISTORIC SCALE."
"TITAN IS BEATING THEIR OWN BOXOFFICE RECORDS."
"CAN ANYONE STOP ALEX WILSON?"
...
[Meanwhile...]
At Disney headquarters, Bob Iger received the box office report before lunch.
Dick Cook stood near the window with a copy of the same numbers in his hand.
Neither man spoke for several seconds.
Dick finally looked down at the report and said, "Five billion dollars for Marvel suddenly sounds very small."
Bob leaned back in his chair and looked toward the Burbank lot below.
"It was always a small number, Dick," he said. "Alex just found another way to remind us."
"Should we take the offer?" Dick asked as he sat down.
Bob thought for a moment before saying, "Next Supergirl will dominate starting Christmas, then god knows what movie he has planned. With our informants gone, we've no way of knowing what he's planning next." He closed his eyes and sighed as he leaned back in his chair. "And, we're in no position to support all our departments given our current situation."
College Road Trip flopped thanks to Maleficent. And multiple movie theaters cancelled the showing due to empty halls and lack of sales, and the movie was replaced with Maleficent. So, Disney suffered a massive loss.
Bob opened his eyes and looked at Dick. "Take the deal. Close the channel studios and cut whoever needs to be cut. Shift the remaining manpower toward the animation department. It's time to do budget management."
--
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