The second chapter to the Maleficent saga has arrived in theatres this weekend. Because the first movie which placed Angelina Jolie as the titular, villainous character was a box office hit (bringing in over $241 million dollars domestically and $750 million dollars globally), expectations remained high for the second film. Unfortunately, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil performed well below expectations with a humble $37.7 million dollar opening. Although this number is not the best, UPROXX adds that the latter is typical for "most family sequels." Unfortunately, the film costs a pretty penny to make (exactly $185 million dollars). And with this kind of revenue, it remains highly unlikely that the new film will experience a huge return in profit to foot the bill.
Several theories have been brought up to explain the low return. For instance, the first movie released shortly after Memorial Day, at a time where children were out of school and enjoying a hot summer day which may have contributed to the box office success. Disney had initially planned to release the film in 2020 around the same time but chose to release it earlier. Perhaps timing did play a role in the movie's lack of success, but nevertheless, it still has some time to catch up both domestically and internationally.