Cinderella (2015 American film)

In May 2010, following the box office success of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which was the second-highest-grossing film of 2010 and earned over $1 billion at the box office worldwide,[7] Walt Disney Pictures began developing a new film adaptation of Cinderella, commissioning a live-action reimagining based on a script by Aline Brosh McKenna and produced by Simon Kinberg.[8] In August 2011, Mark Romanek was brought on to direct.[9] On February 29, 2012, it was announced that Chris Weitz would revise McKenna's script.[10][11] In January 2013, Romanek left the project due to creative differences, as he was developing a version that was darker than Disney wanted.[12] Later that month, Disney negotiated with Kenneth Branagh to take over as director.[13][14]

Cate Blanchett was the first actor to sign on, when it was announced in November 2012 that she would be playing Lady Tremaine, Cinderella's evil stepmother.[15] In March 2013, Emma Watson was in talks to play Cinderella, but a deal could not be worked out.[16][17] Watson went on to play Belle in Disney's 2017 film Beauty and the Beast.[18] Gabriella Wilde, Saoirse Ronan, Alicia Vikander, Bella Heathcote and Margot Robbie were also considered for the part, but deals could not be worked out due to scheduling and other conflicts.[17][19]

On April 30, 2013, Lily James was cast as the title character.[20][21] A week later, Richard Madden was cast as Prince Charming, who was named Kit in the film.[22] In June 2013, it was reported that Holliday Grainger and Sophie McShera joined the film as Cinderella's two evil stepsisters, Anastasia and Drisella, respectively.[23][24] Later that month, Helena Bonham Carter was cast as the Fairy Godmother.[25] In August 2013, Hayley Atwell and Ben Chaplin joined the cast to play Cinderella's mother and Cinderella's father.[26] In September 2013, Stellan Skarsgård's role as the Grand Duke was confirmed.[27] On September 23, 2013, it was announced that Derek Jacobi was cast as the King, Prince Kit's father, and Nonso Anozie as the Captain, a loyal friend to the Prince.[27]

According to Walt Disney Pictures president of production Sean Bailey, studio chairman Alan F. Horn wished to make the film the "definitive Cinderella for generations to come," and told him that "if you need to spend a little more, spend it, to make sure it's one for the time capsule."[28]

Three-time Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell was in charge of the costumes for the film. Powell began working on concepts for the characters' looks almost two years before principal photography began in the summer of 2013. Powell said she was aiming for the look of "a nineteenth-century period film made in the 1940s or 1950s."[29][30]

For the Fairy Godmother, Powell took a major departure from the animated film of the 1950s, instead giving actress Helena Bonham Carter an opulent white ballgown, featuring fairy wings, puff sleeves and a very full skirt. The skirt also had battery lights underneath it, which Carter said caused issues when filming scenes as the batteries would run low quite quickly. For the stepmother and stepsisters, Powell had a very clear idea about the look; "They are meant to be totally ridiculous on the outside—a bit too much and overdone—and ugly on the inside."[30] The silhouette of the prince came from the original animation, however she created a more fitted look and less masculine colours. Some of the prince costumes were dyed to accentuate Madden's eyes.[29]

The ball gown was inspired by the Disney animated film in its color and shape; "The gown had to look lovely when she dances and runs away from the ball. I wanted her to look like she was floating, like a watercolour painting."[29] The dress was made with more than a dozen fine layers of fabric, a corset and a petticoat. Nine versions of the Cinderella gown were designed, each with more than 270 yards of fabric and 10,000 crystals. It took 18 tailors and 500 hours to make each dress.[29]

The wedding dress was another difficult project. "Creating the wedding dress was a challenge. Rather than try to make something even better than the ball gown, I had to do something completely different and simple... I wanted the whole effect to be ephemeral and fine, so we went with an extreme-lined shaped bodice with a long train," said Powell. It took 16 people and 550 hours to complete the silk-organza, hand-painted dress. While the crew photographed James in the gown, the actress stood too close to an electric heater and the dress caught on fire; the top layer of the dress had to be redone because only one wedding dress was created due to time and budget constraints.[29]

For the glass slipper, Powell took inspiration from a 1950s shoe she saw in a museum. Since glass does not sparkle, they decided to use crystal instead. Swarovski partnered with Disney to make the famous shoe. Powell went directly to Swarovski headquarters in Austria to meet the product developers. It took 6 digital renderings of the shoes until they found the right one for the film. Swarovski made eight pairs of crystal shoes for the film, though none were actually wearable. Consequently, the leather shoes James wore on set had to be digitally altered into crystal. Alongside the slipper, Swarovski provided more than 7 million crystals that were used in costumes and 100 tiaras for the ball scene.[31]

Principal photography on Cinderella began on September 23, 2013.[27] The film was shot at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England, and at various other locations including Hampton Court Palace, Blenheim Palace, Windsor Castle, Cliveden, Old Royal Naval College, and Black Park.[14] Although the royal palace is mainly computer-generated, it was modeled after the Zwinger in Dresden, Germany.[32]

Post-production began in December 2013, and was completed in August 2014.[14] The finished film was rated PG for "mild thematic elements" by the Motion Picture Association of America.[33] In the United Kingdom, the film received a U classification for 'very mild scenes of emotional upset' by the British Board of Film Classification.[2]

A tie-in novelization of the film written by Elizabeth Rudnick was published by Disney Publishing Worldwide on January 27, 2015.[52]

The film had its world premiere on February 13, 2015, at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival,[53][54] and was released on March 13, 2015.[55] Theatrically, it was accompanied by Walt Disney Animation Studios' short film Frozen Fever, featuring the characters from Frozen.[56] On February 10, 2015, IMAX Corporation and Disney announced plans to digitally re-master the film into the IMAX format and release it in IMAX theaters globally on the scheduled release date.[57]

In September 2020, the film returned to theaters in the United Kingdom following their reopening from closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released Cinderella on Blu-ray combo pack, Digital HD, DVD, and "Disney Movies Anywhere" on September 15, 2015.[58] Blu-ray bonus features include an alternate opening, the Frozen Fever short, and the featurettes: "Staging The Ball", "Ella's Furry Friends", "A Fairy Tale Comes to Life", and "Costume Test Fun". Five deleted scenes with an introduction by Kenneth Branagh are included exclusively on Disney Movies Anywhere.[59] The film debuted in second place on the home media sales charts behind Furious 7.[60] Cinderella was released on 4K Blu-ray on June 25, 2019.[61]

In October 2014, a licensing agreement between Disney and Turner Broadcasting was announced, in which Cinderella would premiere across Turner's cable network portfolio (including TBS and TNT) in the Spring of 2017.[62] The film had its network television premiere on TBS on August 13, 2017. The film aired on ABC’s Wonderful World of Disney programming block on January 19, 2021.

Cinderella grossed $201.2 million in the US and Canada, and $341.2 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $542.4 million against a budget of $95 million.[5][6] It is the twelfth highest-grossing film of 2015 in any genre.[63] The film had a worldwide opening of $132 million,[64] and an IMAX opening of $9 million.[65] Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $164.77 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film.[66]

In the U.S. and Canada, Cinderella opened on Friday, March 13, 2015, across 3,845 theaters, and earned $23 million.[67] The film's Friday gross included a $2.3 million late night run.[67] It topped the box office during its opening weekend as projected, earning $67.9 million,[68] including a record $5 million from 358 IMAX theaters, and became Disney's biggest 2D PG-rated opening of all time.[69][70] It is director Kenneth Branagh's biggest opening of his career (breaking 2011's Thor record), the fourth-highest Disney opening in March,[71] and was the seventh-highest opening in March overall (not counting for inflation).[72][73] Audiences during its opening weekend comprised 66% female, 66% families, 26% adults, 8% teenagers, 31% under the age of 12 and 9% 50 years and older.[65] Cinderella finished its first week at the box office with $87.55 million, which was very high end of the film's lofty pre-release expectations.[74] In its second weekend, the film declined 49% to $35 million and was surpassed by The Divergent Series: Insurgent, dropping to #2.[75] The drop was in between two of Disney's previous live-action fantasy films, Oz the Great and Powerful (48%) and Maleficent (51%).[76] In North America, Cinderella is the ninth highest-grossing 2015 film.[77]

Outside North America, box office analysts predicted as much as $60 million opening.[78] The film made its debut outside of North America on the same weekend as its wide North American release and earned an estimated $62.4 million from 31 countries,[64] including $4 million from IMAX theaters.[65] It topped the box office for two non-consecutive weekends.[79] It opened in China with $25 million, the biggest March opening in the country,[64] and Russia with $7.3 million.[64] The opening in these two countries were considered impressive given that both the countries are famous for their keenness for 3D films rather than 2D.[64] Other high openings occurred in the UK, Ireland and Malta ($5.6 million), Mexico ($5 million), Japan ($4.8 million), France ($3.3 million), and Brazil ($3.7 million).[79][80] In Australia, where the release date was coinciding with the Cricket World Cup finale, it managed to open with $3.4 million.[79] Italy opened with $4.6 million and topped the box office for three consecutive weekends.[64][79] It also topped the Japanese box office for five consecutive weekends.[81] It became the second-highest grossing Disney live-action film in China, behind Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and in the Philippines, behind Maleficent.[82] In total earnings, its largest markets outside of the US and Canada are China ($71.1 million), Japan ($46 million) and the UK, Ireland and Malta ($29.2 million).[81][83][84]

Cinderella received positive reviews from critics.[85] On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an 84% approval rating based on 256 reviews, with a rating average of 7.20/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Refreshingly traditional in a revisionist era, Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella proves Disney hasn't lost any of its old-fashioned magic."[86] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[87] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[65][68]

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter reviewed the film at the Berlin Film Festival and praised the special effects, the screenplay, and Blanchett's performance and said that "anyone nostalgic for childhood dreams of transformation will find something to enjoy in an uplifting movie that invests warm sentiment in universal themes of loss and resilience, experience and maturity."[88] Peter Debruge of Variety said, "It's all a bit square, big on charm, but lacking the crackle of Enchanted or The Princess Bride. But though this Cinderella could never replace Disney's animated classic, it's no ugly stepsister either, but a deserving companion."[89] Guy Lodge of The Guardian gave the film three stars out of five and said, "While it might have been nice to see the new-model Cinderella follow Frozen's progressive, quasi-feminist lead, the film's naff, preserved-in-amber romanticism is its very charm."[90] Scott Mendelson of Forbes admired the film's visual effects, production design, and deemed the costume design Oscar-worthy, adding, "with an emphasis on empathy and empowerment, Walt Disney's Cinderella is the best film yet in their 'turn our animated classics into live-action blockbuster' subgenre."[91]

Richard Corliss of Time magazine said Branagh's Cinderella successfully updates and revitalizes Disney's "ill-conceived" animated film, and praised the empowered Ella, the visuals, and Blanchett's performance.[92] Katy Waldman of Slate similarly deemed the film a commendable and authentic upgrade that does not undermine its heroine while maintaining its classic splendor and charm.[93] Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal commended James' and Blanchett's performances, the sets, costumes and minimal digital effects, as well as Branagh's direction, stating he "set a tone of lushly sustainable fantasy that's often affecting, frequently witty, seldom cloying, nearly free of self-comment and entirely free of irony."[94] Likewise, Claudia Puig of USA Today complimented the performances along with Branagh and screenwriter Chris Weitz for "ground[ing] this romantic tale with sincerity amid the dazzle."[95] Los Angeles Times' Betsy Sharkey praised Blanchett's and James' performances and described the film as a "poetically, if not prophetically, imagined storybook fable" that succeeds because of its earnestness, humor, its lack of modern-day pretenses, and Branagh's "singular focus".[96] Lawrence Toppman of The Charlotte Observer proclaimed, "This version has more psychological depth than usual and answers questions we may always have had. Branagh's Cinderella does something extraordinarily rare among fairy-tale adaptations: It leaves out nothing we want and adds nothing we don't."[97] Noting the religious themes and symbols of the film, cultural commentator Fr. Robert Barron writes that due to Branagh's traditional telling of the story, "he actually allows the spiritual -- indeed specifically Christian -- character of the tale to emerge."[98]

The film was ranked #1 on TheWrap's list of "Every Disney Live-Action Remake of an Animated Classic Ranked, Worst to Best",[99] #2 in Variety's list of "Disney's Live-Action Remakes Ranked From '101 Dalmatians' to 'Mulan'",[100] and #3 on the Rotten Tomatoes list of "All 14 Disney Live-Action Remakes Ranked".[101]