‘Aladdin’ passes 20-year record holder as Will Smith’s highest-grossing film

Will Smith has faced a lot of mixed reactions surrounding his casting as Genie in the recent live-action remake of Disney’s Aladdin

However, it looked like it was all worth it, as it is now the highest-grossing film that Smith’s starred in ever. 

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Previously, Smith’s highest-grossing film was Independence Day. The actor excitedly shared the news in a video. 

“To be in this game as long as I’ve been in this game, and to have my biggest movie at this point in my career, I just want to say thank you,” he said. 

Aladdin has grossed $824 million at the global box office. 

The remake of the 1992 animated film brought in $86 million domestically during its first three days in theaters and $121 million internationally.

The film was only expected to make about $90 million during its opening weekend including Monday and it almost beat that as of Sunday. It now tops the holiday weekend’s box office.

Despite the huge success, the film has gotten mixed reviews. It only has a 58 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and many reviews have called out downfalls in the film.

Also, there was some backlash before the film even debuted. Last year, Disney has shared a statement confirming that white actors were “made up” in order to blend into crowd scenes in the movie.

Film extra Kaushal Odedra tells BBC he saw “around twenty” actors were made up to look Arabian.

Aladdin was the perfect time to show diversity but also be accurate,” he says. “They’re being out of touch with what’s going on around them.”

Disney’s response says that they aimed to put together “one of the largest, most diverse casts,” and it was only a “handful of instances” where the crew were “made up to blend in.”

“Great care was taken to put together one of the largest, most diverse casts ever seen on screen,” Disney said in a statement, Deadline reports.

“Diversity of our cast and background performers was a requirement and only in a handful of instances when it was a matter of specialty skills, safety and control (special effects rigs, stunt performers and handling of animals) were crew made up to blend in.”

Another issue the film faced was following the release of an Entertainment Weekly cover of the main characters in December, fans were disappointed to see Genie without his familiar blue skin tone.

Will Smith, who plays Genie, responded with an Instagram post assuring his followers that he would be blue in the film and that the promo photo was just Genie in his human disguise.

However, fans were less than enthused with the Genie’s blue hue following the trailer’s release.

A first look at characters such as Abu and Magic Carpet were also included. The film’s antagonist, Jafar, was also seen, but seemed less than enthused according to some.

“Everyone is talking about the Genie, but Jafar looks and sounds the most questionable. He’s so… plain,” Reddit user u/TheLiquidNight said.

However, the film is still doing well after its debut.

Alongside Smith, Naomi Scott plays Jasmine in the film and Mena Massoud plays Aladdin himself. Billy Magnussen, Nasim Pedrad and Marwan Kenzari also star in the film.

You can check out the trailer below.

What do you think of the big accomplishment for Will Smith? Sound off in the comments down below!

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