Summer Movie Memories: How Did One Of The Worst Movies Of the Summer Became A Smash Hit?

Up until Labor Day, I'll be looking at seven different summer movies from Summer 2014 and analyzing what really made them stand out this summer, for reasons both good and bad. Obviously, SPOILERS for Maleficent lie ahead. 


There's several movies I've seen where a feeling of shoddiness just permeates the film. Everything, from the sets to the sound to the acting just fall flat...I bet even the craft services for these rare movies wasn't up to snuff. Maleficent was one such movie, and while it isn't the absolute worst piece of cinema I've seen in 2014. it is up there, no question. This miserable mess of a movie wastes all the potential the character of Maleficent has, as well as all the talent Angelina Jolie has on corny romances, tonally inconsistent sequences and one of the stupidest finales in recent memory (Her wings just all of a sudden come to life? What the hell is this?)

I despised the film, and the way it used one of Disney's best villains as a basis for an endlessly aggravating flick. But my God, did this movie make money. The month it came out (May 30, 2014) was home to new Godzilla, Spider-Man and X-Men movies and Angelina Jolie and her magical powers defeated them all. Somehow, it's become the third biggest movie of the summer, and on a worldwide box office basis, it's the second biggest movie of the summer.

There wasn't a ton of big family movies this summer. Hell, no movie rated G or PG hit $20 million in July or August A.K.A., half of the summer moviegoing season. Paramount took advantage of that desolate landscape by restructuring their marketing of the PG-13 action film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles more towards families, and Disney did a similar tactic for Maleficent. The marketing was dark and foreboding, to the point where I was surprised it received a PG rating prior to its theatrical release. However, the movie itself is actually the tamest of Disneys big-budget CGI  fantasy movies (joining Alice In Wonderland and Oz The Great And Powerful in this soon expanding class) in terms of scariness, and Disney smartly used that to their advantage. The movie was geared late in the game to be a big family movie event and it paid off. Big time.

Plus, let's not forget about the female moviegoing populace, who had limited options this summer. However, they turned films like The Fault In Our Stars, Tammy, Lucy and Maleficent into summertime moneymakers (it's no surprise to me that Guardians of The Galaxy, the summers big sleeper hit, has had a ton of female appeal). All those factors, along with the allure of classic Disney animation and Angelina Jolie, combined to make a powerful box office force. I wish the movie managed to be something resembling an enjoyable experience as a movie, but I do tip my hat to it in terms of becoming a smash hit financially.