By It came down to the wire but it looks as though George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” will narrowly beat out “The Garfield Movie” at the North American box-office for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
The latest estimates from the studios indicate “Furiosa” took in $26.2 million over the three-day, and by the end of Monday will take in a haul of $32 million. “Garfield” was close behind at $24 million for the three-day and $31.1 million for the four-day.
Either way, excluding 2020 when cinemas were closed due to COVID, this marks the worst Memorial Day weekend in nearly three decades. Ticket sales remain 22% behind 2023 and 41% behind 2019.
“Furiosa” in particular is being painted as outright flop already with the film’s overseas haul not faring much better – by end of Sunday it had made $33.3 million outside of North America bringing its worldwide opening weekend debut to $58.9 million. Overseas isn’t going to save this one.
Fingers are now being pointed with different explanations – for some it’s the lack of Mad Max, for others the recasting of Furiosa, and some blame the nice weather in big swaths of Europe.
Hard numbers, however, show a big issue is limited appeal. The film is an R-rated prequel to a mostly male-driven property, and more specifically within a certain age range of male. PostTrak results from opening day (via Deadline) suggests teenagers, anyone over 55 and women stayed away in droves with those demographics making up just 2%, 9% and 29% of the audience.
Combined with its hefty $168 million price tag, and soft audience B+ CinemaScore, the film may end up being a costly flop for Warners so eyes will keep a close watch on subsequent weekend business to see how it fares.
“The Garfield Movie” on the other hand only cost just $60 million and has already generated $91.1 million globally, meaning it’s going to come out of this dismal weekend fairly rosy.
“IF” dropped 52% in its second weekend for a $16.1 million three-day and $21 million four-day haul. Fourth was “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” with a $13.4 million three-day and a $17.2 million four-day. Fifth was “Fall Guy” with a $6 million three-day and a $7.7 million four-day.
Source: Deadline
The post “Furiosa” Barely Beats “Garfield” At Box-Office appeared first on Dark Horizons.
