Following the box office flop of”Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” reports indicate that future cinematic installments of the “Mad Max” franchise could be put on hold. “Furiosa” was a prequel to the 2015 release of “Mad Max Fury Road.” However, the film underperformed as the box office experienced one of the worst Memorial Day weekends in nearly a quarter century.
From a financial perspective, “Furiosa” had an expensive production budget of $160 million, which only brought in around $70 million globally during the Memorial Day weekend. According to these figures, the film is far from breaking even before factoring in marketing and promotional costs.
Subsequently, reports indicate that future plans for a sequel, “Mad Max: The Wasteland,” have been paused as the studio reevaluates the viability of the franchise. Last month, filmmaker and creator of the Mad Max franchise, George Miller, explained that upcoming movies in the saga would largely depend on how well Furiosa performed. “I’ll definitely wait to see how this [Furiosa] goes, before we even think about it,” he said.
One theater executive suggested that the “Mad Max” franchise could better allocate its resources toward decreasing its budget and focusing on its existing base of fans instead of trying to spark new interest in the movies. “IP like Mad Max and Ghostbusters is old, and they have the fans they’re going to have. If studios can budget to that, they might make some decent money,” the executive told The Hollywood Reporter.
Another person familiar with the matter commented that, while much of the audience enjoyed the movie, “Furioas” struggled to attract a substantial audience. “I think Furiosa suffered without Charlize. People who see the movie love it. The problem is getting them into theaters. She would have been able to do that,” per a studio insider.
Another Hollywood executive opined on the disappointing box office performance, stating, “Fury Road was an outlier in the series. It also had a hot young star and a huge female star. Nine years later, it had neither.”
Overall, the theatrical releases in the entertainment have struggled in recent post-pandemic years, where industry experts are watching how major releases will perform in the coming years. “Let’s see what happens next year with Mission: Impossible and in 2026 with the next Star Wars movie,” said box office analyst Eric Handler of Roth Capital.
Paul Dergarabedian of Comscore is hopeful that films set to release through the end of the year will make up for the lackluster performance seen so far. “This fever will hopefully break in June and July with an overperformance by at least one of the high-profile films to get the wind back in the sails of the box office,” he said.
Notably, “Furiosa” attained a 90 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes on both the critic and audience ratings. A description of the film reads, “Snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers, young Furiosa falls into the hands of a great biker horde led by the warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel, presided over by the Immortan Joe. As the two tyrants fight for dominance, Furiosa soon finds herself in a nonstop battle to make her way home.”
Watch a trailer of the movie below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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