Box-office update: Angelina Jolie, X-Men set new records, while God’s Not Dead passes Son of God in N America

The big news this week is that Maleficent, Disney’s revisionist take on the Sleeping Beauty story, ruled the North American box office with $69.4 million.

That’s smaller than the openings for other recent Disney live-action fairy tales like Alice in Wonderland ($116.1 million) and Oz the Great and Powerful ($79.1 million), but bigger than the opening for Snow White and the Huntsman ($56.2 million), which was produced by Universal.

It’s also bigger than the opening for any previous Angelina Jolie movie. Her best opening until now had been $60.2 million for Kung Fu Panda, an animated film in which she voiced one of the supporting characters, while her top live-action opening had been $50.9 million for Wanted. (Both of those films came out in 2008.)

In other news, X-Men: Days of Future Past became the first film since The Hunger Games: Catching Fire to gross over $160 million in ten days or less. It is also the first film in its franchise to gross over $300 million overseas and over $500 million worldwide — but in North America, it currently ranks fourth out of the seven films.

Turning to the “faith-based” market, the “big” news, such as it is, may be that God’s Not Dead has inched ahead of Son of God to become the top-grossing independently-produced “faith-based” film of the year in North America.

As of this weekend, God’s Not Dead has earned $59.8 million in North America, whereas the much more heavily promoted Son of God — which is still playing in 21 theatres — has earned $59.7 million. However, God’s Not Dead has earned only $1.5 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $61.2 million, whereas Son of God has earned $8.1 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $67.8 million.

In other news…

Heaven Is for Real, which was made by Sony, earned $775,000 in its seventh week, landing it in the #13 spot and raising its domestic total to almost exactly $88 million. It has earned another $2.7 million overseas for a worldwide total of $90.7 million.

Moms’ Night Out earned $300,000 in its fourth week, raising its domestic total to $9.6 million. It does not appear to have been released overseas at all.

And Noah earned $150,783 in its tenth week, raising its domestic total to $100.9 million. It has earned another $244.6 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $345.5 million. That number will get a boost when the film opens in Japan late next week.