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

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga had an underwhelming opening and box office run, 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 with 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 $30 million, taking its worldwide total opening weekend haul to a lowly $61-63 million.

Furiosa’s Total Box Office: 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. By the end of its box office run, Furiosa grossed $67.5 million domestically.

In terms of international numbers, Furiosa grossed $105.3 million, bringing the total to $172.77 million. Its biggest competitor, The Garfield Movie, grossed $135.2 million, bringing the total to $227 million (via Box Office Mojo). 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.

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 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 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 followed 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 The Garfield Movie, 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.

Is Furiosa A Box Office Bomb?

Furiosa Is 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 needed to make around $420 million to break even. Sadly, Furiosa was a significant box office bomb of 2024 – though not as bad as Argylle or The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare – a disappointing result for a film that received strong reviews and revisited one of the most famous movie sagas of all time.

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There was also 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 reduced 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. The movie’s failure 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 during 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.

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 grossed significantly less than its predecessor. Perhaps future Mad Max movies will have to be made under smaller budgets, echoing the saga’s origins.

Furiosa Still Found Success After Its Box Office Run

The Mad Max Prequel Became Successful On VOD And Streaming

The only hope for the Mad Max franchise to continue is the success of Furiosa after it left the box office. After a shockingly bad box office run, the movie jumped to number one on both the iTunes and Fandango VOD charts for the week of June 24 to 30. Additionally, after releasing on Max, the movie went straight to number one on the Top 10 movies list for the streamer. The success online may not be enough to continue the franchise, considering how dismally it performed in theaters, but it shows that fans are passionate about Furiosa despite what the numbers say.

Sources: Deadline, The Numbers

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

4.0

A prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa is an action-adventure film that tells the origin story of the headstrong and fearless Furiosa. Set shortly after the beginning of the “end of the world,” Furiosa is kidnapped and brought before a powerful warlord, now forced to work for him. To find her way back home, Furiosa will adapt to the new harsh and arid world as she grows into the Furiosa she becomes known to be. 

Director

George Miller

Release Date

May 24, 2024

Writers

George Miller , Nick Lathouris

Runtime

148 Minutes