Furiosa's Box Office Opening Explained: What The Hell Happened With The Mad Max Prequel?!

Summary Furiosa's underwhelming box office reflects wider Hollywood issues, with a disappointing $64-66 million worldwide opening weekend haul.

Despite positive reviews, Furiosa struggles to resonate with audiences, possibly due to its status as a prequel within the Mad Max universe.

Competition from family-friendly Garfield and a trend favoring shorter theater-to-digital release windows may have contributed to Furiosa's box office struggles.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga had an underwhelming opening weekend, something that is worryingly symptomatic of wider Hollywood box office problems. Furiosa is connected to 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road as a prequel, set further behind the latter in the Mad Max movie timeline. The film was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated of the year, especially in film-loving circles, primarily due to the immensely positive reception of Fury Road and the fantastic cast assembled for Furiosa.

Despite the anticipation for the film, Furiosa's path to Valhalla has been somewhat tarnished. By the time of Furiosa's climactic ending, the film leads right into Mad Max: Fury Road and tells a fantastic, whacky, layered, complex story filled with action set pieces worthy of its predecessor - or successor, chronologically. That said, Furiosa has proven not to resonate with general audiences, begging the question of what went wrong for the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel.

Related The World Of Furiosa & Mad Max Fury Road Explained Filmmaker George Miller is perhaps best known for being the visionary behind the Mad Max universe and lore, which includes both Fury Road and Furiosa.

How Much Furiosa Made In Its Opening Weekend

Furiosa's Opening Weekend Numbers Have Been Revealed

Furiosa's opening weekend numbers have been a point of discourse for many trades after its release. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Furiosa slumped to a $26 million gross between Friday, May 24, and Sunday, May 26. However, Furiosa was released over the Memorial Day weekend, taking its estimated domestic total to between $31-33 million. Concerning how Furiosa fared overseas, the reading is not much better. In territories outside of the United States and Canada, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga earned around $33 million, taking its worldwide total opening weekend haul to a lowly $64-66 million.

Why Furiosa's Box Office Is Surprisingly Low Despite Good Reviews

Furiosa's Negative Box Office Is Linked To The Wider Problems Facing Hollywood Of Late

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Although Furiosa is receiving positive reviews, its box office returns for its opening weekend are underwhelming. Many could point to the film itself and wonder why Furiosa specifically is not resonating with audiences, though the issue is much broader than any one film. Instead, Hollywood as a whole has been suffering with box office success in recent years, with a variety of reasons factoring into this disappointing stretch of failed movies. Furiosa, unfortunately, is simply the latest in a long line of underperforming movies that, if its great reception is anything to go by, should be earning much more.

Furiosa's Critical Reception Critic Rotten Tomatoes Score Audience Rotten Tomatoes Score CinemaScore 90% 90% B+

The first problem facing Furiosa has affected other 2024 releases like The Fall Guy. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the wait time between a movie ending its theatrical run and being released on digital is increasingly shortening. The Fall Guy's poor box office was capped off with the announcement it would release on digital only two weeks after releasing in theaters. This shrinking wait time is causing audiences to stop spending money in theaters in favor of cheaper, home-video options, which has evidently impacted Furiosa too.

Aside from wider industry problems, Furiosa's status as a prequel is likely a factor contributing to its poor box office. In recent years, prequels to giant movies simply do not have the same pull as they once might have. Some instances include Solo: A Star Wars Story and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, both of which grossed significantly less than their other franchise installments. Furiosa is now following suit, with a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road obviously not high on the list of stories general audiences desired.

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One other element that could have worsened Furiosa's opening weekend was its competition. Although the only other film that was released over the three-day Memorial Day weekend was Garfield, this film appeals much more to families. Any family who desired a holiday weekend theater trip will have chosen Garfield instead of Furiosa given the latter's R-rating and the former's childlike nature. This was proven by Garfield's almost identical domestic opening weekend of $31 million across the four days.

Garfield and Furiosa have marked the lowest Memorial Day weekend domestically in 29 years, according to Deadline, summing up the issues with the Hollywood box office.

How Furiosa's Box Office Compares To Other Mad Max Movies

Does Furiosa's Box Office Underwhelm In Comparison To Other Mad Max Films?

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Another way of determining how Furiosa performed is by comparing it to other Mad Max installments. Furiosa does not focus on the titular Mad Max for the first time in the franchise, meaning it is interesting to see how it compares to prior films. That said, it is worth noting that the box office numbers for Mad Max, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (per The Numbers) are somewhat unclear due to their overall unpopularity, their older age, and the primary demographic being Australia rather than the United States.

Domestic Opening Weekend Worldwide Box Office Total Domestic Box Office Total Mad Max (N/A) $99 million $8 million Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior $2 million $23 million $23 million Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome $7 million $36 million $36 million Mad Max: Fury Road $45 million $369 million $153 million Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga $31-33 million $58 million (as of May 2024) $31-33 million (as of May 2024)

Is Furiosa A Box Office Bomb?

Furiosa's Status As A Success Or Flop Remains To Be Seen

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All of these numbers, figures, and box office failures beg the question of whether Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will be labeled as the latter. Given that it has only been in theaters for one weekend at the time of writing, it is difficult to declare it a success or a failure at this point. With that in mind, predictions and general Hollywood rules of thumb about profits and losses can be used to speculate whether Furiosa will eventually become a success, or become a bomb at the box office that Immortan Joe's War Boys would be proud to ride to Valhalla.

Related Immortan Joe & The War Boys In Mad Max Explained Immortan Joe is one of the most iconic villains in the Mad Max franchise, and here are the origins of the antagonist as well as his loyal War Boys.

In terms of predicting how Furiosa's domestic and worldwide box office will end up, it is difficult to say. There is little in the way of extreme competition until A Quiet Place: Day One and Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 on June 28. In the month between Furiosa and these two films, only Bad Boys: Ride or Die could be seen as competition that could lessen Furiosa's box office, with the other major film - Inside Out 2 - likely only impacting Garfield's success.

With such difficulty in predicting Furiosa's final worldwide total present, it is best to look at what the film needs to earn to be labeled a success. Usually, it is often stated that tentpole Hollywood movies need to earn two-and-a-half times their production budget to begin turning a profit. This takes into account marketing and distribution costs, as well as any other outstanding fees and payments. While not a perfect metric, it is commonly used, and any film that earns beneath this threshold is usually classed as a Hollywood box office bomb.

...modern practices of VOD and digital sales make these predictions somewhat less accurate, as a film's success - or lack thereof - upon home release could dictate whether it is a failure or a triumph.

As such, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga would need to earn a worldwide total of $420 million to begin earning any profit. This looks somewhat unlikely based on the film's opening box office, though strong word of mouth and the aforementioned lack of competition could see it gain some legs at the box office. Finally, modern practices of VOD and digital sales make these predictions somewhat less accurate, as a film's success - or lack thereof - upon home release could dictate whether it is a failure or a triumph.

All of this is to say that Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga's box office fate is up in the air. While the opening weekend numbers admittedly are worrying for the film's overall chances of being a success, it is still too early to write it off as a bomb. Regardless of how the film ends up, it is symptomatic of wider Hollywood problems. Theatrical releases are seemingly taking inspiration from one of Furiosa's many chapter titles by becoming a Wasteland, with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga becoming the latest to join the club as, unfortunately, no one is witnessing it.