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.
How Much Furiosa Made In Its Opening Weekend
Furiosa’s Opening Weekend Numbers Weren’t Good
Furiosa‘s opening weekend numbers were surprisingly low. 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.
Furiosa’s Total Box Office So Far: How Much The Mad Max Prequel Has Made
Furiosa Made $11.5 Million In Its Second Weekend
Per Deadline, Furiosa made $11.5 million domestically on its second weekend, coming behind The Garfield Movie at $13 million. Furiosa’s box office has seen a 56% drop from the first weekend, which would not be disastrous on its own but is bad news for the movie considering its disappointing opening weekend. As a comparison, The Garfield Movie had a 45% drop from its 3-day opening weekend. Furiosa has grossed $49.1 million at the domestic box office as of the writing of this article, with Deadline predicting it will be at $50.4 million by the end of the weekend.
In terms of international numbers, Furiosa has so far made $32.8 million overseas. Its biggest competitor, The Garfield Movie, has grossed $66.6 million internationally already, although it has been playing in some countries since the beginning of May. While Furiosa’s full international numbers for the second weekend have yet to come in, the movie’s current earnings point at a shockingly low box official total by the end of its run. Although neither Garfield nor Furiosa has done particularly great in their second weekends, the latter has a much bigger budget – Furiosa reportedly has a production budget of $168 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
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.
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.
How Furiosa’s Box Office Compares To Other Mad Max Movies
Does Furiosa’s Box Office Underwhelm In Comparison To Other Mad Max Films?
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
$75 million (as of June 2024)
$49-51 million (as of June 2024)
Is Furiosa A Box Office Bomb?
Furiosa Is Shaping Up To Be A Major Box Office Bomb
To determine whether Furiosa is a box office bomb, 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.
With a reported budget of $168 million, which does not account for marketing costs, Furiosa would have to make around $420 million to break even. This is now impossible considering the movie’s opening weekend and substantial second-weekend drop. Furiosa is shaping up to be one of the biggest box office bombs of the year, a disappointing result for a film that received strong reviews and revisited one of the most famous movie sagas of all time.
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.
…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.
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. 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.
What Furiosa’s Box Office Means For The Mad Max Franchise’s Future
George Miller Has Discussed More Mad Max Movies, But Will They Happen?
The Mad Max universe is vast and could welcome several spinoffs, yet Furiosa’s box office puts the franchise’s future at risk. Even though Furiosa leaves the door open for other stories to be told in this universe, whether a franchise continues or not usually comes down to the box office and nothing more. It must be noted that Fury Road‘s performance at the awards season and the cult status it acquired helped give the movie a second life despite a not-so-impressive box office run, which could happen to Furiosa. Still, the Mad Max saga is now in a tough position.
Perhaps future Mad Max movies will have to be made under smaller budgets, echoing the saga’s origins.
George Miller has discussed plans for future Mad Max movies, including a prequel and a sequel to Fury Road. In 2022, Miller commented on Mad Max: The Wasteland, noting “it’s still not fully evolved.” Although revisiting the word of Mad Max, particularly from Fury Road, after Furiosa sounds incredibly exciting, it has now become much more difficult for the saga to continue. Fury Road was not a box office hit, yet Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will likely gross less than its predecessor. Perhaps future Mad Max movies will have to be made under smaller budgets, echoing the saga’s origins.
