Despite Being a Hopeful Match for Dune: Part 2, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is Falling in the Depressing ‘The Fall Guy’ Category With One Sad Update
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is falling behind expectations just like The Fall Guy, which is obviously spelling trouble for the producers. Although the prequel was expected to attract as much fanfare as Mad Max: Fury Road, that does not seem to be the case if its opening-day box office collections are anything to go by.
The Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy starter action movie had a significant amount of buzz, but that does not seem to have translated into good box office numbers. Its performance is rather surprising and not in a good way.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Fails to Hit the Mark on Opening Day
The movie is both a prequel and spin-off of the Mad Max franchise as it sees the origin story of the character Furiosa from 2015’s Fury Road. The fact that Anya Taylor-Joy was replacing Charlize Theron in the role did not bode well with fans; not to mention that the character did not have too much of the fans’ attention to begin with.
Even so, since it has such a star-studded cast and George Miller as the director, Deadline reported that it was expected to have a $80-85 million global opening with $40-45million abroad and another $40 million four-day domestic. Unfortunately, Variety has recently reported that the movie has opened with $10.2 million from 3,804 locations and preview screenings.
This collection is almost the same as The Fall Guy, which earned $10.4 million from 4,002 locations (via Variety). The action-comedy helmed by David Leitch and starring Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling was also expected to do better, but so far, it has not managed to break even.
The Mad Max prequel’s box-office projections were along the same lines as Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic drama Dune: Part 2. The Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya-led movie earned $82.5 million (via The Hollywood Reporter), leaving behind its predecessor and making it the biggest start of the year. The lackluster performances of Furiosa and The Fall Guy are not exactly making the summer box office look cool.
Is Furiosa Falling Behind Its Predecessor?
Furiosa earned a 6-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. Taylor-Joy bowed to the audience while Hemsworth turned teary-eyed at the enthusiastic response. Miller addressed the crowd (via Variety), saying:
We worked very hard on this film, and it’ll be very interesting to see what you make of it. Thank you for having us.
Despite this response, the movie seems to be falling even behind its predecessor, which opened with $16 million (via Variety). Mad Max: Fury Road not only won six Academy Awards but also grossed $380.4 million at the worldwide box office against a budget of $150 million (via The Numbers). On the other hand, Furiosa has a budget of $168 million, which makes its situation look even more dire.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is in theatres.
