Magnificent Maleficent(2)

US actress Angelina Jolie promotes her latest film "Maleficent" in Shanghai on June 3, 2014. Cao Zichen / For China Daily

Her latest live-action role brings the "Mr and Mrs Smith" and "Salt" star back to the silver screen for the first time in almost four years.

Maleficent earned over US$70 million in the US after its release on May 28, making it Jolie's highest-grossing opening weekend to date. The film opens here on June 20.

Disneyland Shanghai is due to open in late 2015, but the actress would not be drawn on whether it will feature a Maleficent-themed attraction to pair with the highly anticipated Pirates of the Caribbean boat ride.

"In the future I think I'll be doing less acting and more directing," she says. "I want to understand human nature" and explore themes like brotherhood, she adds.

She was due to fly back to the US later that night to finish editing "Unbroken," a war drama about former Olympic track athlete and WWII veteran Louis Zamperini. It is the second time she has stepped behind the camera. Jolie also directed "In the Land of Blood and Honey" in 2011 about the 1992-95 Bosnian War.

She was accompanied in Shanghai by partner Brad Pitt and three of their six children. "I think they're in dim sum classes right now," she says.