Angelina Jolie's Biggest Box Office Movie Wasn't Eternals or Tomb Raider
It has been over a decade since Angelina Jolie's last true box office peak — and it still hasn't been topped.
For all the action movies, Marvel cameos, and globe-trotting spy gigs on Angelina Jolie's résumé, her biggest box office hit is still... Maleficent. That's right — not Eternals, not Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and definitely not either of the Tomb Raider movies.
Released in 2014, Disney's live-action reimagining of Sleeping Beauty's villainess earned a massive $759.9 million worldwide — a number Jolie has yet to top. Even its 2019 sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, didn't come close.
Here's how her top-grossing films stack up globally:
- Maleficent (2014): $759.9 million
- Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019): $491.7 million
- Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005): $487.3 million
- Eternals (2021): $402.1 million
- Wanted (2008): $341.4 million
- Salt (2010): $293.5 million
- The Tourist (2010): $278.3 million
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001): $274.7 million
A Production That Barely Held Together
Maleficent didn't have the smoothest road to box office glory. It started as a Tim Burton-led animated project before morphing into a live-action film — which Burton promptly exited. He was replaced by Robert Stromberg, a first-time director best known for production design.
The script went through at least 15 revisions, with entire characters (like Queen Ulla and King Kinloch) being added, cut, and rewritten. At one point, over 15 minutes of the opening act were scrapped and reshot, with The Blind Side's John Lee Hancock brought in to fix the pacing.
A Technical Monster With a Deadline
The visual side was no picnic either.
- Rick Baker handled the prosthetics, designing Jolie's horns and reshaping her face.
- Digital Domain built the three pixies with a mix of facial capture and digital rigging.
- Disney Research Zurich developed custom VFX tools just for this movie.
- Costume designer Anna B. Sheppard had eight weeks to make over 2,000 costumes, including a full-time "Team Maleficent" dedicated solely to Jolie's wardrobe.
The reviews weren't glowing. Critics pointed to pacing problems, tonal whiplash, and clunky narration. TIME called it "overly commercial," while others blamed its uneven tone on the production chaos.
None of that mattered. Maleficent:
- Grossed $241M domestic, $517M international
- Pulled in a worldwide total just under $760 million
- Netted an estimated $190.8 million in profit, per Deadline Hollywood
- Was Disney's fourth-highest-grossing film of 2014
- Helped push Disney over $4 billion at the global box office that year
It's also still one of the highest-grossing female-led films of all time — and, by far, the most commercially successful title of Jolie's career.
So no matter how many Marvel epics or action thrillers she signs on for, the crown remains firmly with the fairy in the horned headpiece.