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Disney's 'Maleficent' Debuts With $69.4 Million

NEW YORK (AP) —Disney's "Maleficent" cast a strong spell at the box office with a $70 million debut.

Featuring Angelina Jolie's first live-action starring performance in four years, "Maleficent" beat forecasts to easily top all films over the weekend. The PG-rated Disney release is a darker twist on "Sleeping Beauty," told from the villain's perspective.

Seth MacFarlane's Western comedy "A Million Ways to Die in the West" was out-gunned by "Maleficent." It opened in third place with a tepid $17.1 million.

Last weekend's top film, "X-Men: Days of Future Past" dropped to second with $32.6 million.

And fourth was the holdover — the creature feature, Godzilla — with $12-million.

Overall, industry-wide totals were slightly ahead of last year’s pace.

(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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