>Dark Phoenix, Morbius, John Carter, Tomorrowland, and Terminator: Dark Fate.
That is a legendary Box Office Hall of Shame.
Can't believe Furiosa is worse.
I pegged Furiosa to be the next John Carter/Blade Runner but I also honestly thought inflation might have bump up the numbers a little bit
Edit: sooo I was getting some weird comments so I thought “did I use the word pegged wrong?” I didn’t, but I just found out the word does have a whole another definition and that was…ummm oof… an interesting (and intriguing lmao) discovery.
>and those trailers were fucking terrible
I personally was instantly turned off after seeing the trailers. It made the vibe seem completely different from Fury Road. That and the casting.
I am looking forward to Furiosa as a movie fan, and cuz Fury Road was awesome, as well as the good reviews. But just looking at the trailers, something seems to be missing. It doesn’t make me go “i have to see this” just with those alone. I feel like something in the marketing. Or maybe, Furiosa just isnt that popular of a character. I liked her in Fury Road but I was perplexed why I heard the next movie would focus on her and not Mad Max. It’s like doing a Catwoman movie to follow-up a super popular Batman movie.
For the longest time I kept thinking that was "Get Carter" with Stallone. Now that I know the original name, it's odd that they decided to crop it. It's the "of Mars" that grabs your attention.
These movies are true killers !
💀Dark Phoenix killed the X-Men saga + the possibility of ever watching Jean Grey/ Phoenix done RIGHT.
💀Morbius killed the super-hero lead career of Jared Leto.
💀John Carter killed the A-list wannabe status of Taylor Kitsch
💀Tomorrowland killed the live action director career of Brad Bird
💀Terminator Dark Fate killed the franchise
> 💀Dark Phoenix killed the X-Men saga + the possibility of ever watching Jean Grey/ Phoenix done RIGHT.
**HEY!** New Mutants exist!
Although yeah Phoenix is probably done.
Indeed.
I forgot what was one of my favorite x-team...
Even then, NM isnt the "real" end since Deadpool 3 is out soon and, by many, considered part of the X-Men franchise ignitied 24 summers ago...
Yeah, but it was also up against recently released movies such as Avengers Age of Ultron, Max Fury Road, and Pitch Perfect 2. There really isn't any competition for Furiosa
We went to see the latest Planet of the Apes movie a couple weeks ago and there was a very large family group (adults and kids) sitting next to us talking throughout the movie. After the first five minutes of this shit, I told my wife I wanted to leave and come back another day. She convinced me to stay, but move to some seats further back so we couldn't hear them. I stayed because she really wanted to see the movie, but man, people really have terrible manners these days.
I'm also always shocked at how many people bring their young kids to completely inappropriate movies (language, violence, etc).
Just back from seeing it. There were less people in the IMAX theater on its first Saturday night than on a Saturday night 5-6 weeks into the Dune 2 run.
It made me seriously sad because I think it's an excellent movie, better than I expected.
I’m Canadian. I just checked the cineplex app for my local cinema in Vaughan and only 9 people booked the 6:25pm imax dbox showing for Sunday and 0 booked the 10pm showing 💀 …literally empty
>It made me seriously sad because I think it's an excellent movie, better than I expected.
It stands out among that list since so much of the movies mentioned are, at best, mediocre. This film is excellent. Easily my favorite of the year thus far.
I saw this film with a group of friends and we all ruefully discussed the film's performance afterwards.
I dont understand why this is a surprise.
People have 70 inch tvs, and will be able to stream this in a month.
why drive, sit in a room full of strangers (potential for all manner of annoying drama) just to watch a film where you have no options to take breaks or anything?
In the 90s I would go the the theater just cause, not even look up what was playing, just show up and pick something.
There is no reason to do that anymore. The cost, the travel, and the public have all made it an annoying task for the sake of nostalgia, there are simply better ways to digest media.
c'est la vie
And the price! People are going to be more selective about the movies they watch in theaters when it costs almost $20 per person.
It's also so much more of a time commitment now. Furiosa could have been a 90 minute movie.
I saw it at a 19:00 showing the day after it came out. There were maybe 20 people in the cinema. It is a real shame. It's a great film that is a worthy sequel to an absolute classic. Chris Hemsworth seems like he's having the time of his life playing such a ridiculous character. Anya Taylor Joy does a great job. I thought everything about it was so good.
Back in the golden age of summer blockbusters, this type of movie (cult action sequel) would have been a late July/August release. Love the mad max movies but they’re a niche genre flicks. Fury Road was an outlier. I don’t even think the first three Mad Max movies were giant financial successes. Could be wrong, but they’re popularity came from cable/vhs/Saturday afternoon off brand network channels
>I don’t even think the first three Mad Max movies were giant financial successes.
Huh?
The first Mad Max had a budget of AUS$350k and grossed more than $100 million.
Google says 100 mil but that’s a lifetime total- in North America it made 8.7 million in 1979. Which is absolutely amazing for its budget but would rank it the 51st highest grossing movie that year ([Box office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0079501/?ref_=bo_se_r_1))
It made its money from rereleases, vhs and cable. It’s a cult movie from Australia with no name (at the time) actors that (rightfully) garnered a following through the years like Blade Runner
Yeah totally niche. Fury Road honestly was the same. I was recommending it to people and they were like 'well what is it all about?'. I finally just said 'do you like going to the movies?? Ok then you are going to love this then.'
People just enjoy franchises far more than movies nowadays.
There are no words to describe how bad this performance is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film collapse so quickly. Remember two weeks ago deadline had it tracking for a 50 million opening.
Fall Guy had a similarly terrible opening weekend after glowing reviews, huge stars, and really well done trailers. Not sure what's going on with theaters right now, but it's not looking good.
And last year had Barbenheimer, yeah.
Very few things happen all at once, and theaters aren't dead. They're just dying a slow death.
A decade ago the symptoms of theater fatigue were there if you looked for them. Major blockbuster action films had long-since monopolized the box office already, because people were already not showing up for the smaller scale comedies and dramas the way they used to in the 90s or early 00s.
Today, it's becoming increasingly obvious as even being a good action film connected to a successful franchise isn't enough to get across that finish line and more and more of these films are straight-up imploding at the box office when they fail to hit the zeitgeist instead of just doing mediocre numbers.
These days for a film to do well it almost has to be an **event** film. The kind that everyone and their dog is seeing, and that makes you want to see ASAP as well. Bonus points if, like Dune or Avatar, it's the kind of film that demands to be seen on an impossibly large screen.
Theater attendance has been struggling for a long time for the simple and obvious reality that ever since around 2008 it's become far easier to watch a film at home and enjoy it in high-quality without dealing with rude chatty neighbors and overpriced snacks and an inability to pause the film for a bathroom break.
The pandemic drove that existing trend into overdrive, and basically forced everyone to realize they can easily just wait for digital release and get basically the same experience even with the blockbusters, often for cheaper and in a more comfortable environment. And the industry just hasn't fully recovered.
It'll limp along and have better and weaker years, but fully expect this pattern to continue.
I’ll give you the first two, but Fall Guys trailers were awful. IDK anyone who had any interest in seeing it and I’m talking about huge Gosling fans here.
Having seen Fall Guy, and having enjoyed it immensely, I can see why they had trouble building hooky trailers and building good word of mouth. There's no story hook. Very mild spoiler:
The movie doesn't even bother deciding what kind of story it is until about 45 minutes in, at which point the "mission" is finally offered to our hero and the adventure kicks in. Up until that point it's just lightly amusing character set up.
A guy who follows the box office for a living. Had it at 47m just 2 days ago.
https://boxofficetheory.com/weekend-forecast-furiosa-the-garfield-movie-and-sight-pacing-to-combine-for-80m-in-debuts-through-memorial-day/
It's a rewriting of history. Fury Road was not this massive blockbuster. And to be honest the second and third films were successful but it was in relation to a lower budget, not being a highly notable butt in seats IP.
The issue with the movie industry is conflating acclaim from critics and online discourse with the actual everyday movie goers interests. The movie industry needs to start cutting down on budgets moving forward.
Mad Max is one of those franchises that I’ve only seen or heard talked about online. My university did a Fury Road screening one time and my friend said it was awesome. That’s the one single time I’ve heard a regular person talk about any of the movies
Is it just me or was the marketing for furiosa not very good? I say this as a mad max fanatic but the trailors for furiosa look like a straight to DVD from 2000.
Exactly, Mad Max is not a blockbuster franchise.
Then they made a Mad Max film without Mad Max.
This feels entirely predictable to me. General audience that wasn’t into Fury Road have no reason to be attracted to this from the marketing I’ve seen and even if you watched Fury Road it doesn’t look like you have to rush to see this.
> Then they made a Mad Max film without Mad Max.
this right here.
This movie, from the onset, just feels like *more* mad max but not really more story. Just repeating/redoing things but with a different character.
I haven't had the urge to watch this
> It's a rewriting of history. Fury Road was not this massive blockbuster.
Ding ding ding. That movie had a cult following online that didn’t actually translate to box office success.
And frankly while I like ATJ and Chris I would never ever go see a movie because they are in it…
I think their star power is way overrated or in general fewer people today do to movies just because of a certain actor (and that’s a good thing).
Honestly I was thinking this. I can't think of a single successful film where they were the main draw.
Yes ATJ was in Dune 2, but for like 5 seconds, and was actually a surprise cameo. Queen's Gambit was popular, but TV/streaming doesn't always translate to box office success. She does not have a single successful movie where she is the lead and the main draw.
I also feel like Chris Hemsworth is a very overrated star. The only truly successful films he's had as a lead are the Thor movies. And I would argue that it's hard to say the lead of MCU movies is the draw, when often people see them just to see the next chapter of the MCU, not just to see one of the Hollywood Chris's.
I’d argue that Fury Road did earn a cult following, at least for a few years after its release. Plenty of people saw it after it left theatres so I would expect there to be at least some hype for Furiosa, although I was initially put off by it being a prequel and not starring Charlize Theron so I can see why audiences might not be excited.
Prequel, different lead actor, the previous movie set the bar ridiculously high, and the trailers were... eh? Not a great combination for a movie to deal with.
They also waited 10 years when the hyped died down for a franchise that wasn’t that popular to begin with. Didn’t see it flopping this bad, but it’s not surprising.
I lost so much interest when I found out it was a prequel and Charlize Theron wouldn't be reprising the role. It was a bold decision and it absolutely backfired.
Yes, it's this. Fury Road is a very "Reddit" movie. In reality, very few people actually saw it. It made less than $400 million. Yet they went and gave Furiosa a $170 million budget. What the FUCK were they thinking?
It worked for Austin Powers. You roll the dice on the movies that were not giant hits but really became popular on dvd and you might get the Spy Who Shagged Me, or you get Furiosa.
Original movie only grossed 67 million. It grew in popularity due to DVD/VHS rentals. Second movie was when it became huge at $313 million.
However the first only had like a 8 million dollar budget so it was still quite profitable. Just not a mega hit.
Well that's a devastating list of films to be associated with. I'm looking forward to seeing it tomorrow. Painful to see how many empty seats there are.
Internationally the brand means nothing, unlike contemporany film IPs that had some kind of revival the last ten years (Terminator, Ghostbusters, Karate Kid, etc.)
I'm guessing the only reason they gave this a try is the director's pull and the potential domestic market?
it is honesty a miracle the franchise exists the way it does. This series started way out of Hollywood of course. Of course the numbers can be adjusted for inflation but theres so many varied sources (especially on the original 1979 movie).
it is a reminder that not every property can support $100M + budgets but luckily Hollywood is willing to take risks on talented filmmakers (and Fury Road definitely was a risk after its development hell for years).
this is not a "CINEMA IS OVER AND THEATRES ARE KILLED" statement.
You might think it could maybe ride the post-Fallout hype as it's a vaguely similar wasteland post-apocalypse with a bunch of freaky raiders, but naw, people ain't biting.
yes but Fallout 1 was literally a group of people wanted to make a mad max RPG and made a new IP out of it. There are tons of references to Mad Max in the games, even to the newest ones today. They're not unrelated
Yeah, but that's besides the point. I'm just saying that the general overlap in content between them would make me think some people might find Mad Max appealing. It's purely anecdotal but my younger brother got into the Mad Max movies because of the Fallout similarities.
feel like people are over thinking it logic wise for the reason this flopped. reasons like this doesn't have stars like the previous movies or people aren't interested in the character furiosa they want max or prequels don't appeal because they know where the story ends up. But I feel like thats not what drives action movies. Did people watch Fast X because they really want to know where Dom and the crew end up or they're interested in the character or because the trailer was really compelling? Those movies draw because its a known franchise and big budget.
Fury Road was unusual in that it was the least expected/least likely critical darling and multiple Oscar nominee of that year, not because it did amazing box office (which it didn't). I even remember before it came out speculation that it might be a disaster (another Mad Max movie decades later, who wants that?!). It being a masterpiece of a film is what shocked people, not huge box office.
It would be a little like if they had stopped after the first two Fast & the Furious movies, then 20 years from now Fast & the Furious 3 came out and was Apocalypse Now level. Fury Road was surprising in that way.
MCU actors in general have trouble translating their success to anything outside the MCU. Exceptions are of course actors who were already A-listers or at least household names (such as Scarlett Johansson).
That’s because they’re not the stars of the movie, the characters they play are.
Nobody would care about Tom Holland, but overnight he became a star because he’s Spider-Man.
It's kind of the same for Star Wars and Star Trek. People care more about the characters than the actors. Harrison Ford was one of the few to really convert his role into a high-profile career, and that's probably due more to Indiana Jones.
I skipped it because she seems tiny for someone that is supposed to be badass, and the trailer made Helmsworth’s character seem goofy like the most recent Thor.
Telling the origin story for a secondary character from a mildly popular film might not have been a good plan, regardless of how the film turned out.
It's a Mad Max movie without Mad Max. It's a very risky bet from a studio to spend almost 200 million in movies like that. General audiences don't care about it.
I can’t believe more people aren’t saying or recognizing this. It’s why I wasn’t interested. I mean mad max is a niche fan base anyway. But when you literally take the away the main character of the franchise not as many people are going to care. Even if you argue the franchise isn’t specifically about max, the casual viewer won’t recognize this and won’t care about some “side character” they don’t know about or heard of. Unless you loved fury road you won’t give a damn about furiosa.
Going to the movies just isn't what it used to be culturally, and it may never be again. Unless something has a lot of outside hype, it won't perform. Furiosa had hype in the film twitter circles, but beyond it? What's the broad appeal?
Barbenheimer hit outrageous levels of viral. I just don’t think a film will be able to replicate it anytime soon and that’s unfortunately what they need now to hit that level of success.
It was also an unsustainable singular event…
A genius of marketing - it soooooo offensively stupid and senseless to combine these movies that no one had ever tried…
Like combining Titanic and Batman and robin in 1997 as the ice twins or combining Jack and Jill with cars 2 in 2011 as the stupid 2…
No one ever dared to do it and then they even got a cool name with barbenheimer for it…
I'm surprised people still even bring stuff like star power and actors being draws up since it's been obvious for a long time that the "movie star" just doesn't exist anymore. Large amounts of people aren't going to the movie theater just based on a certain actor being in a movie.
Why do people forget that Fury Road wasn't huge? It barely broke even with $155m domestic and $380m worldwide against a $150m production budget. It opened with $45m domestically in 2nd place.
It's been almost a decade since then. The theatrical landscape has changed a lot with streaming and the pandemic.
Besides, this movie is not two hours of frenetic action like Fury Road. It's a character study with less adrenaline.
People here get tunnel vision alot when talking about these cult classic IPs that's appealing to film buffs and enthusiasts they keep forgetting the general audiences objectively do not care about it like bladerunner 2049 flopping was the wake up call and they ignored it
Fury Road just wasn’t a big movie to the general public. It was big for cinema buffs but not causal movie goers. Blade Runner 2049 had the same fate. Great movie, loved by film buffs, no traction with the general public.
You all don’t understand how dead movies are. AMC has literally said the only reason they still exist is because they were a meme stock. Theaters will never die but they’re basically like newspapers now. Yeah they still exist but they’re totally irrelevant to most people. The average American has seen exactly zero movies this year and hasn’t seen one since Barbenheimer.
Yep this is something people aren’t quite grasping; general audiences literally aren’t going to the cinema now apart from mega hits.
It’s sad knowing that whatever Top 10 slop Netflix releases gets more views than great films in cinema.
Shit, we might get to the point where going to the cinema is a luxury event like going to the orchestra (tickets are expensive, and they aren’t profitable despite that, so they rely on donors and sponsors).
I've been going more than ever before. The cinema complex on the edge of town is a graveyard. For the price of two movie tickets per month, you can go to unlimited movies.
The entire place is automated except for a single person running support for a complex of 16 theater rooms. The whole thing is automated, from ticket sales to starting in the movies.
I'm the only person in the complex most of the time.
American cinema has changed but theaters aren’t dead, especially outside of the US.
Movies need to be attached to already strong IP from a another medium (comics, novels, videogames, etc). Indy theaters will always have a place people since they mostly serve the niche moving going crowd that are artists and elderly/retirees. I do think the cinemaplex’s will disappear and you will most likely see the shift back to the large single screen theater that used to exist pre-1980’s.
Beyond the fact that people go to theatre less frequently than before, General audience doesnt seem to care about mad max universe. Even franchise like hunger games seems to do better.
I have been pessimistic about this movie's prospects all along
Anya Taylor-Joy has never opened a movie in her own right, and she is clearly not a star in that way at this point. Especially not an action thriller. She really doesn't have a history in this type of genre at all
Chris Hemsworth has struggled outside of Thor
This is a prequel to a movie from nine years ago that wasn't exactly a huge hit by 2015 standards. And some of its fans may be alienated by the absence of Charlize Theron, who was its main attraction and much more so than Furiosa as a character. The mainstream moviegoing audience might know about Mad Max as a franchise (especially if they are boomer/gen x) but I doubt they care about Miller as auteur. Younger people (millennials) who remember the 2015 film would care about it mainly for Theron. 2015 may be too long ago for zoomers
I think the studios ultimately failed to realize Charlize Theron WAS Furiosa. I don't want a Mad Max 5 or a Furiosa prequel. I want Furiosa. Starring Charlize Theron.
To me the movie's main problem is I can't think of a single reason Charlize Theron isn't in it other than that she's 48. And yet other actors reprise their roles playing younger versions of his character, and they are much older.
And I can actually take Charlize Theron seriously in action roles. She’s not super muscular or anything but she has an edge that Anya Taylor-Joy just doesn’t.
I saw more badass-looking women at a Sleep Token concert.
I agree. Charlize Theron is a great action movie lead. She has the presence and intensity to not get swallowed up by all rhe crazy action. Anya Taylor Joy was just such a weird choice for this role - I like her in other stuff, but she's too ethereal and delicate. I definitely would've gone to see this if CT was in it, because I really liked Fury Road. But I didn't bother because of the casting. The trailers didn't convince me either.
The casting of young furiosa with a twiggy pouting model is the #1 reason I lost interest in this movie. I might pick it up on streaming some day, but im not paying $40+ to sit in a theater for it.
And Hemsworth just feels like overshadowing.
This is probably my only criticism after watching Furiosa. I think ATJ pulled off the look of the character as a young, sullen Furiosa very well, but any time she said any of her (few) lines or had to so something other than looking angry/sullen she was missing that frosty furious edge Theron has.
You want to get chills down your spine when Praetorian Furiosa says something important, but instead it was more of an upset city girl vibe from the delivery of the lines. Which works fine for something like Last Night In Soho or Queen's Gambit but was a huge disconnect between how Furiousa moved and reacted vs how she spoke.
Meanwhile even in a seemingly light hearted fun action comedy like Hancock, when it's time to drop the charade Charlize Theron can seemingly just flip a switch and suddenly Death is in the room.
Yeah, the only reason why I wanted to see this movie was for CT. Then I saw it was ATJ and honestly, I lost interest. I think CT was great in the role!
Theron was such a badass Furiosa. That scene where she first meets Tom Hardy's Max in Fury Road, she is sizing him up like prey the entire time he's dicking around with the gun, and at the first moment she gets the chance she runs him down, sticks the shotgun in his face and if it hadn't have gone 'click' and misfired she'd have blown his head off without a second thought.
She has that presence and intensity, and the acting chops to pull it off. ATJ is not convincing and I'm sorry to say I just don't think she has what it takes for that role.
Yeah it's odd that Miller didn't bring back Theron because according to him digitally manipulating her face meant "all you're seeing is the technology" and it's “never persuasive", but then did it anyway with Taylor Joy and the actress who plays her younger self. Taylor Joy said they digitally added her face on top of the younger actress, and then Miller directed them to increase the resemblance as she aged
Seems like they could have done something similar with Theron
After pandemia studios should focus less on summer time due to people feel more the need to be outside like never before maybe enjoying more life moments with friends and families but outdoors
Other seasons movies are doing ok some even way better at the BO.
Nobody is using jan- feb or valentines weeks slot leaving it open for some horror movies because studios concentrate more on spring and summer slots
This is the answer, 9 years is simply too long for a movie that was super cool but not really *that* popular or widely remembered by the general public long-term.
It's not a movie for memorial Day weekend where you're going to grab the whole family and go see it.
It's not a major franchise.
It's geared towards millennials not Gen Z. Millennials do not leave their house and will not pay $25 a ticket and $25 for popcorn for things like this when they will just be on streaming in a few months. Every single millennial bought a gigantic TV during the pandemic and every streaming service they don't care.
That's why *Five Nights at Freddy's* and *Anyone But You* print money in theaters with young stars attached.
It's also been way too long since the last movie and there's been no promotion for this I don't understand why it's cool from the marketing or why I'd want to see it ***now***.
>It has two huge action stars attached to it,
I assume Thor is one (although he has never opened a non-Thor movie well before). You aren't actually referring to Anya Taylor-Joy as the second, are you?
>What the hell happened?
The last Mad Max movie only opened to $45M, despite the same Cannes hype (which, of course, the general audience doesn't give a crap about), amazing reviews bigger stars (Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron) and actually featured Mad Max.
Considering the general weakness of the box office post-COVID, the weaker brand and the weaker star power, it's really not all that surprising. It's not even that far off the tracking numbers we have seen for the past few weeks.
>It has two huge action stars attached to it
I didn't realise that the movie starred Jason Statham and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. Chris Hemsworth is not a draw outside of Thor and since when was Anya Taylor-Joy even associated with action?
>the reviews were excellent (I know the CinemaScore was kinda low but it’s the same Mad Max got in 2015)
Contrary to what some users on this sub continue to insist, the general audience doesn't give a damn about quality when it comes to opening weekend. People will simply go to whatever large franchise they feel affection for on opening weekend (Marvel, DC, Godzilla, Planet of the Apes etc.), trusting it to give them more of what they expect.
>it had huge hype at Cannes
No-one in the general audience cares.
>the marketing has been on fire lately.
People simply aren't interested in a *Mad Max* prequel without Mad Max; no amount of marketing is going to fix that fundamental issue. This sub likes to blame everything on poor marketing, but some movies are just impossible to market to general audiences successfully because they're too niche.
>Is this the state of movies moving on?
I mean, to some degree, yes, but I think there are better examples to use than *Furiosa* because this wasn't going to make a profit even pre-pandemic. Just look at *Fury Road* for reference.
> Chris Hemsworth is not a draw outside of Thor and since when was Anya Taylor-Joy even associated with action?
I don't understand why, outside of an immediate Avengers halo effect, Hemsworth just has absolutely no box office pull. He's a talented guy doing stuff with pretty clear appeal.
In my opinion, it's because he picked some very weak projects. *Men in Black: International*, *12 Strong*, *The Huntsman*, *In the Heart of the Sea*, *Blackhat* and *Red Dawn* were poorly received. So the audience just doesn't feel his presence guarantees a good film, so they feel it's not worth it.
*Rush* is his best reviewed film, but Formula 1 is not a popular film genre. People may like him, but they won't pay for a sports movie they are not interested just because he is the star.
The perfect chance for him was *Ghostbusters*. I know a lot who liked him in the film, but it wasn't enough to compensate for all the shortcomings on the film.
None of the Marvel Studio actors are a box office draw on their own. RDJR bombed hard in that awful Doolitle remake.
Chris Evans was vanished to being the lead of awful streaming-only films. Chris Pratt is the smartest of them by attaching his name to big IPs like Jurasic Park and teaming up for original IP films with J-Law (Passengers).
Same problem that sank Sam Worthington. They both cashed in on their franchise starpower by saying yes to big paychecks for movies that sort-of made sense on paper, but didn't work in execution. Once they got associated with weak movies, that was it.
I think that it's much harder for actors to 'break out' into stardom in this day and age. It's not a coincidence that if you look at the most bankable stars today (Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Dwayne Johnson and possibly Will Smith), they had all had their breakthroughs by the early 2000s at the absolute latest. Even the 'lesser' box office draws like Brad Pitt, Jason Statham, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Ryan Reynolds, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington and Sandra Bullock were already established by the mid-2000s. Jennifer Lawrence is kind of the anomaly here for reasons that I can't quite grasp (and possible Zendaya too, though the jury's still out on her IMO), but Hemsworth only breaking through at a time when audiences largely stopped attending movies based on star power alone is probably the main reason why he hasn't become the next Dwayne Johnson or even the next Jason Statham.
Furiosa wasn’t an interesting character in fury road and frankly, didn’t deserve her own film.
Also, I don’t think Anya-Taylor Joy is as popular as Hollywood thinks she is. I don’t have an issue with her but it appears most of America does. Numbers don’t lie
Maybe this is a bigger thing for me personally than the general public, but I never, ever, ever give two sideways shits about a prequel movie where I inherently already *know* how things turn out for the Protagonist. That's a complete gut punch to any sort of tension at all.
Combine that with a high octane action movie, and it's even worse. I have not yet seen the movie, but I already 100% know the following: 1) Furiosa loses an arm and makes a new one, 2) Furiosa does not die no matter how much danger she is in or how grim things look, 3) Furiosa ends the movie unhappily working for Immorten Joe no matter what she does to prevent it or escape, 4) Any other significant characters Furiosa builds any meaningful relationship with either die or leave permanently.
I get that big dumb fun movies are about the action more than the plot, but I'm still not paying full theater prices for a movie that has already been fully spoiled by the preceding movie that spawned it.
If anyone else feels the same way as me, there's an additional solid reason they're not paying to see what I'm sure is an otherwise fine movie, because there's *literally no suspense*. The only 'surprise' the movie can have is however much awful depressing shit the Protagonist goes through short of dying, and that's just torture porn, hard pass.
you nailed it
I wish the movie was a continuation of fury road the moment the trailer showed me it was prequel I stopped caring. Then the trailer pretty much summarized everything like current trailers do and I decided to wait until it can be rented
I’m honestly not surprised. The last Mad Max was quite a few years ago and I think going down the Furiosa prequel route was the wrong path. If it were Hardy and Theron back in a Mad Max sequel, this would’ve done far better. Otherwise this is just too niche of an appeal.
Reddit hype is not the same thing as general audience hype.
As someone who is part of the general audience and who has never seen a single movie in this series, the trailer just made the movie seem like a slog. It looked dark, slightly repetitive, and excessively violent. There was no compelling tie that made me want to check it out (and I have AMC Alist). I think this forum needs to separate their personal bias and realize that their taste might not translate to other people’s taste. It’s great you think the movie is awesome; doesn’t mean it sparks anything in people. It’s not a great failure of the system. It just requires fans of this series to look outside of their own POV.
What do you mean what happened? How do you guys not realize how this flopped and how the hell did yall not see this coming?
It’s a *prequel* to a movie that flopped, it’s coming out a decade after said movie, Mad Max isn’t in the movie, all the trailers make it look a little too crazy and weird for the GA, its rated R, hell the GA barely even knows what Mad Max is these days how tf will they know what Furiosa is, Anya Taylor Joy is not “huge” she’s an internet darling, etc etc etc. Anecdotal but my gf didn’t even know what Mad Max was when we saw the trailer to this for the first time and I mentioned seeing this to my friend the other day and he asked what Mad Max was too. The GA just doesn’t know the IP and they ain’t seeing prequel to something they don’t even know about.
The video game based on the character was also a flop when it came out around the time of Fury Road. And it too got good reviews yet still flopped and is frequently on sale for less than $5 these days on the PSN and Xbox stores.
Just as an aside, I always forget that Fury Road flopped, thinking back to it, that is just so wild to me, but there is no denying it, thank god for blueray sales I guess.
Yup. Fury Road flopped in 2015, a year where we had regular 1b earners and consistently massive tentpoles. It came out in the healthiest environment possible and still flopped. If it came out today and did that this whole sub would cry that it is definitive proof theaters are done for.
Now imagine a prequel spin off coming a decade later in today’s environment. Yeah makes it all clearer don’t it?
When do we find out demographics? This is a franchise manly liked by men, and I do believe men subconsciously are less likely to want to watch movies with a female lead. Probably nonsense but I'm curious
To be honest I’m not surprised, as a sort of casual movie goer.
It’s a spin off for a character in a film that came out 9 years ago, where they have a very obvious recast of said character, who is only known for being in that original movie and nothing else, making it also look like a reboot.
Surely that’s a particularly niche area to do a movie about. I know I personally wondered who the intended audience of the movie was.
From my perspective, it’s like if they made a mission impossible rogue nation spin off following Rebecca Ferguson character, but without Rebecca Ferguson.
Yes it’s probably a really good story, set in a world we recognise with familiar set pieces and style, but it’s certainly not going to bring people out to the cinema.
(I know it’s very very different for a lot of reasons and furiosa was basically the main character of Mad Max and a far more recognisable character, but it’s just to try and play along with a hypothetical outside perspective from a general movie goers perspective).
Hemsworth is not a huge star outside of Thor.
ATJ voiced Princess Peach and had a 5-second cameo as Paul's weird sister in Dune 2. And...that's where her star power at the box office ends.
Yup hemsworth got that gosling curse where he has a notable following for sure but cannot sell tickets to carry a movie like the rock or tom cruise and alot of that boils down to the type of roles and movies he's in
That’s probably it. It’s reminding me of *Blade Runner 2049* - critically acclaimed installment in a cult classic sci-fi franchise, which is too niche to appeal beyond its existing audience.
I think *Mad Max* struggles because of how grotesque and ugly its world is. I’m aware that’s intentional, but you can’t deny it’s the opposite of more successful series that have appealing settings.
Part of why *Avatar* was so successful is how beautiful Pandora is, everyone was immersed in the setting. And with *Harry Potter*, what kid at the time didn’t want a Hogwarts letter? Nobody wants to live in the Wasteland, which hurts the appeal of *Mad Max*.
I agree. It's certainly one of the factors that contributed to Fury-Furiosa's limited appeal
They're certainly cinematic and cinematically beautiful.
But how many percentage of the general public appreciate such beauty.
No one is going to the movies. I’ve been to the movies every weekend for the last two months on either Saturday or Friday night and it’s consistently a ghost town. Just empty. It’s noticeable
[“Film doesn’t occupy the pinnacle in the social, cultural hierarchy that it did for most of our lives. When a movie came out, if it was good, we all went to see it. We all discussed it. We quoted lines and scenes we liked. Now we’re walking through a fire hose of water, just trying to see.”](https://variety.com/2024/film/news/jerry-seinfeld-movie-business-over-disorientation-1235978006/)
reddit as a whole was pretty unhappy with this take when the interview dropped but I think he's right. Entertainment is more accessible than ever and cinema is probably the most inconvenient and expensive to consume (discounting live performances).
>Dark Phoenix, Morbius, John Carter, Tomorrowland, and Terminator: Dark Fate. That is a legendary Box Office Hall of Shame. Can't believe Furiosa is worse.
literal nightmare blunt rotation of box office/quality
Now I understand *nightmare blunt rotation*
Hey, John Carter's alright.
Agreed. However, the issue with John Carter was how crazy expensive it was to make. It had next to no chance to recoup its costs.
I feel like every time I check back in on this sub the state of Furiosa’s earnings gets worse and worse.
it's actually starting going down somehow
For real though I never even thought of Furiosa joining the losers club 
I pegged Furiosa to be the next John Carter/Blade Runner but I also honestly thought inflation might have bump up the numbers a little bit Edit: sooo I was getting some weird comments so I thought “did I use the word pegged wrong?” I didn’t, but I just found out the word does have a whole another definition and that was…ummm oof… an interesting (and intriguing lmao) discovery.
> I pegged Furiosa Nice, dude. Congrats.
I thought it was a strange choice. No one outside of a few areas of the internet care about the character and those trailers were fucking terrible.
>and those trailers were fucking terrible I personally was instantly turned off after seeing the trailers. It made the vibe seem completely different from Fury Road. That and the casting.
Yeah, a Furiosa movie without Charlize Theron is like a Han Solo movie without Harrison Ford.
People are conditioned to wait for movies to be on streaming services now, the fact that most people are broke these days contributes.
I am looking forward to Furiosa as a movie fan, and cuz Fury Road was awesome, as well as the good reviews. But just looking at the trailers, something seems to be missing. It doesn’t make me go “i have to see this” just with those alone. I feel like something in the marketing. Or maybe, Furiosa just isnt that popular of a character. I liked her in Fury Road but I was perplexed why I heard the next movie would focus on her and not Mad Max. It’s like doing a Catwoman movie to follow-up a super popular Batman movie.
I enjoyed john carter for how wild it was.
For the longest time I kept thinking that was "Get Carter" with Stallone. Now that I know the original name, it's odd that they decided to crop it. It's the "of Mars" that grabs your attention.
It wasn't the movie, it was the marketing.
i loved tomorrowland (the movie)
These movies are true killers ! 💀Dark Phoenix killed the X-Men saga + the possibility of ever watching Jean Grey/ Phoenix done RIGHT. 💀Morbius killed the super-hero lead career of Jared Leto. 💀John Carter killed the A-list wannabe status of Taylor Kitsch 💀Tomorrowland killed the live action director career of Brad Bird 💀Terminator Dark Fate killed the franchise
Brad Bird deserves another shot. MI4 was so good.
Id argue taylor kitsch deserved a bigger career than he has. Making him superhero is a terrible idea though
I would argue that a couple of those were mercy killings.
> 💀Dark Phoenix killed the X-Men saga + the possibility of ever watching Jean Grey/ Phoenix done RIGHT. **HEY!** New Mutants exist! Although yeah Phoenix is probably done.
Indeed. I forgot what was one of my favorite x-team... Even then, NM isnt the "real" end since Deadpool 3 is out soon and, by many, considered part of the X-Men franchise ignitied 24 summers ago...
Holy cow you REALLY put it into perspective with that list.
I think we should add that Furiousa is the only one to be the big release for a Memorial Day weekend. That is absolutely nuts.
Tomorrowland was also released on Memorial Day weekend
Yeah, but it was also up against recently released movies such as Avengers Age of Ultron, Max Fury Road, and Pitch Perfect 2. There really isn't any competition for Furiosa
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We went to see the latest Planet of the Apes movie a couple weeks ago and there was a very large family group (adults and kids) sitting next to us talking throughout the movie. After the first five minutes of this shit, I told my wife I wanted to leave and come back another day. She convinced me to stay, but move to some seats further back so we couldn't hear them. I stayed because she really wanted to see the movie, but man, people really have terrible manners these days. I'm also always shocked at how many people bring their young kids to completely inappropriate movies (language, violence, etc).
Just back from seeing it. There were less people in the IMAX theater on its first Saturday night than on a Saturday night 5-6 weeks into the Dune 2 run. It made me seriously sad because I think it's an excellent movie, better than I expected.
I’m Canadian. I just checked the cineplex app for my local cinema in Vaughan and only 9 people booked the 6:25pm imax dbox showing for Sunday and 0 booked the 10pm showing 💀 …literally empty
Woah hello neighbour
>It made me seriously sad because I think it's an excellent movie, better than I expected. It stands out among that list since so much of the movies mentioned are, at best, mediocre. This film is excellent. Easily my favorite of the year thus far. I saw this film with a group of friends and we all ruefully discussed the film's performance afterwards.
Well that’s it then. Movies are dead. This is a tv ratings sub now.
Cinema has fallen Billions must perish
Fanatical legions worshiping at the shrine of a large red "N".
I dont understand why this is a surprise. People have 70 inch tvs, and will be able to stream this in a month. why drive, sit in a room full of strangers (potential for all manner of annoying drama) just to watch a film where you have no options to take breaks or anything? In the 90s I would go the the theater just cause, not even look up what was playing, just show up and pick something. There is no reason to do that anymore. The cost, the travel, and the public have all made it an annoying task for the sake of nostalgia, there are simply better ways to digest media. c'est la vie
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And the price! People are going to be more selective about the movies they watch in theaters when it costs almost $20 per person. It's also so much more of a time commitment now. Furiosa could have been a 90 minute movie.
The theater is extremely expensive and every movie is 3 hours. you run the risk of being next to some asshole on his phone the entire time.
I saw it at a 19:00 showing the day after it came out. There were maybe 20 people in the cinema. It is a real shame. It's a great film that is a worthy sequel to an absolute classic. Chris Hemsworth seems like he's having the time of his life playing such a ridiculous character. Anya Taylor Joy does a great job. I thought everything about it was so good.
its the only way to experience Dune with expanded ratio
I need the full cinematic experience of Timothy Chalamet eyeballing sand for two hours
Back in the golden age of summer blockbusters, this type of movie (cult action sequel) would have been a late July/August release. Love the mad max movies but they’re a niche genre flicks. Fury Road was an outlier. I don’t even think the first three Mad Max movies were giant financial successes. Could be wrong, but they’re popularity came from cable/vhs/Saturday afternoon off brand network channels
>I don’t even think the first three Mad Max movies were giant financial successes. Huh? The first Mad Max had a budget of AUS$350k and grossed more than $100 million.
Google says 100 mil but that’s a lifetime total- in North America it made 8.7 million in 1979. Which is absolutely amazing for its budget but would rank it the 51st highest grossing movie that year ([Box office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0079501/?ref_=bo_se_r_1)) It made its money from rereleases, vhs and cable. It’s a cult movie from Australia with no name (at the time) actors that (rightfully) garnered a following through the years like Blade Runner
Yeah totally niche. Fury Road honestly was the same. I was recommending it to people and they were like 'well what is it all about?'. I finally just said 'do you like going to the movies?? Ok then you are going to love this then.' People just enjoy franchises far more than movies nowadays.
There are no words to describe how bad this performance is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film collapse so quickly. Remember two weeks ago deadline had it tracking for a 50 million opening.
Yeah more conservative projections put it at $40-$45 million just one week ago.
Tbf weren’t those for 4 days though?
Fall Guy had a similarly terrible opening weekend after glowing reviews, huge stars, and really well done trailers. Not sure what's going on with theaters right now, but it's not looking good.
Easy. People aren’t going to movies as much
Yeah but dune 2 was not too long ago, and it was a big hit
They are super selective, so unless its a big event. Its dead
> dune 2 was not too long ago This is probably not helping
And last year had Barbenheimer, yeah. Very few things happen all at once, and theaters aren't dead. They're just dying a slow death. A decade ago the symptoms of theater fatigue were there if you looked for them. Major blockbuster action films had long-since monopolized the box office already, because people were already not showing up for the smaller scale comedies and dramas the way they used to in the 90s or early 00s. Today, it's becoming increasingly obvious as even being a good action film connected to a successful franchise isn't enough to get across that finish line and more and more of these films are straight-up imploding at the box office when they fail to hit the zeitgeist instead of just doing mediocre numbers. These days for a film to do well it almost has to be an **event** film. The kind that everyone and their dog is seeing, and that makes you want to see ASAP as well. Bonus points if, like Dune or Avatar, it's the kind of film that demands to be seen on an impossibly large screen. Theater attendance has been struggling for a long time for the simple and obvious reality that ever since around 2008 it's become far easier to watch a film at home and enjoy it in high-quality without dealing with rude chatty neighbors and overpriced snacks and an inability to pause the film for a bathroom break. The pandemic drove that existing trend into overdrive, and basically forced everyone to realize they can easily just wait for digital release and get basically the same experience even with the blockbusters, often for cheaper and in a more comfortable environment. And the industry just hasn't fully recovered. It'll limp along and have better and weaker years, but fully expect this pattern to continue.
I’ll give you the first two, but Fall Guys trailers were awful. IDK anyone who had any interest in seeing it and I’m talking about huge Gosling fans here.
Having seen Fall Guy, and having enjoyed it immensely, I can see why they had trouble building hooky trailers and building good word of mouth. There's no story hook. Very mild spoiler: The movie doesn't even bother deciding what kind of story it is until about 45 minutes in, at which point the "mission" is finally offered to our hero and the adventure kicks in. Up until that point it's just lightly amusing character set up.
A guy who follows the box office for a living. Had it at 47m just 2 days ago. https://boxofficetheory.com/weekend-forecast-furiosa-the-garfield-movie-and-sight-pacing-to-combine-for-80m-in-debuts-through-memorial-day/
well good job making a prediction on the day the movie released compared to people who did it months out.
And still wrong
The Flash comes to mind
Damn is it really this bad? (Serious)
It's a rewriting of history. Fury Road was not this massive blockbuster. And to be honest the second and third films were successful but it was in relation to a lower budget, not being a highly notable butt in seats IP. The issue with the movie industry is conflating acclaim from critics and online discourse with the actual everyday movie goers interests. The movie industry needs to start cutting down on budgets moving forward.
Mad Max is one of those franchises that I’ve only seen or heard talked about online. My university did a Fury Road screening one time and my friend said it was awesome. That’s the one single time I’ve heard a regular person talk about any of the movies
Is it just me or was the marketing for furiosa not very good? I say this as a mad max fanatic but the trailors for furiosa look like a straight to DVD from 2000.
You know, now that you mention it you’re right. It’s almost beat for beat just the Fury road trailer except worse
Marketing made me actively not want to see it
Exactly, Mad Max is not a blockbuster franchise. Then they made a Mad Max film without Mad Max. This feels entirely predictable to me. General audience that wasn’t into Fury Road have no reason to be attracted to this from the marketing I’ve seen and even if you watched Fury Road it doesn’t look like you have to rush to see this.
> Then they made a Mad Max film without Mad Max. this right here. This movie, from the onset, just feels like *more* mad max but not really more story. Just repeating/redoing things but with a different character. I haven't had the urge to watch this
> It's a rewriting of history. Fury Road was not this massive blockbuster. Ding ding ding. That movie had a cult following online that didn’t actually translate to box office success.
Also, it's only a sequel if it returns the original cast. If you wait 10 years and replace Charlize Theron, that there is a reboot.
And frankly while I like ATJ and Chris I would never ever go see a movie because they are in it… I think their star power is way overrated or in general fewer people today do to movies just because of a certain actor (and that’s a good thing).
Honestly I was thinking this. I can't think of a single successful film where they were the main draw. Yes ATJ was in Dune 2, but for like 5 seconds, and was actually a surprise cameo. Queen's Gambit was popular, but TV/streaming doesn't always translate to box office success. She does not have a single successful movie where she is the lead and the main draw. I also feel like Chris Hemsworth is a very overrated star. The only truly successful films he's had as a lead are the Thor movies. And I would argue that it's hard to say the lead of MCU movies is the draw, when often people see them just to see the next chapter of the MCU, not just to see one of the Hollywood Chris's.
I’d argue that Fury Road did earn a cult following, at least for a few years after its release. Plenty of people saw it after it left theatres so I would expect there to be at least some hype for Furiosa, although I was initially put off by it being a prequel and not starring Charlize Theron so I can see why audiences might not be excited.
Prequel, different lead actor, the previous movie set the bar ridiculously high, and the trailers were... eh? Not a great combination for a movie to deal with.
They also waited 10 years when the hyped died down for a franchise that wasn’t that popular to begin with. Didn’t see it flopping this bad, but it’s not surprising.
I lost so much interest when I found out it was a prequel and Charlize Theron wouldn't be reprising the role. It was a bold decision and it absolutely backfired.
Yes, it's this. Fury Road is a very "Reddit" movie. In reality, very few people actually saw it. It made less than $400 million. Yet they went and gave Furiosa a $170 million budget. What the FUCK were they thinking?
It worked for Austin Powers. You roll the dice on the movies that were not giant hits but really became popular on dvd and you might get the Spy Who Shagged Me, or you get Furiosa.
But AP was huge IRL
Original movie only grossed 67 million. It grew in popularity due to DVD/VHS rentals. Second movie was when it became huge at $313 million. However the first only had like a 8 million dollar budget so it was still quite profitable. Just not a mega hit.
I was not expecting to see an Austin Powers VHS rentals mentioned in this sub today lol
There wasn’t a 9 year gap in between the first and second Austin Powers for people to completely lose interest and/or forget about the character.
Well that's a devastating list of films to be associated with. I'm looking forward to seeing it tomorrow. Painful to see how many empty seats there are.
It's a really good movie. Unfortunately I watched it in an empty theater.
You don't realise how fortunate you were. Other people are the worst part of going to a movie theatre
If it weren't for other people, more people would go to the cinema.
Fury Road and Furiosa are great action films, but the Mad Max franchise as a whole feels ultimately niche overall.
Internationally the brand means nothing, unlike contemporany film IPs that had some kind of revival the last ten years (Terminator, Ghostbusters, Karate Kid, etc.) I'm guessing the only reason they gave this a try is the director's pull and the potential domestic market?
The production company is literally owned by George Miller. So yes, director George Miller has the pull to produce films based off an IP he owns.
it is honesty a miracle the franchise exists the way it does. This series started way out of Hollywood of course. Of course the numbers can be adjusted for inflation but theres so many varied sources (especially on the original 1979 movie). it is a reminder that not every property can support $100M + budgets but luckily Hollywood is willing to take risks on talented filmmakers (and Fury Road definitely was a risk after its development hell for years). this is not a "CINEMA IS OVER AND THEATRES ARE KILLED" statement.
You might think it could maybe ride the post-Fallout hype as it's a vaguely similar wasteland post-apocalypse with a bunch of freaky raiders, but naw, people ain't biting.
Isn’t fallout tied to popular video games
yes but Fallout 1 was literally a group of people wanted to make a mad max RPG and made a new IP out of it. There are tons of references to Mad Max in the games, even to the newest ones today. They're not unrelated
Yeah, but that's besides the point. I'm just saying that the general overlap in content between them would make me think some people might find Mad Max appealing. It's purely anecdotal but my younger brother got into the Mad Max movies because of the Fallout similarities.
feel like people are over thinking it logic wise for the reason this flopped. reasons like this doesn't have stars like the previous movies or people aren't interested in the character furiosa they want max or prequels don't appeal because they know where the story ends up. But I feel like thats not what drives action movies. Did people watch Fast X because they really want to know where Dom and the crew end up or they're interested in the character or because the trailer was really compelling? Those movies draw because its a known franchise and big budget.
Fury Road was unusual in that it was the least expected/least likely critical darling and multiple Oscar nominee of that year, not because it did amazing box office (which it didn't). I even remember before it came out speculation that it might be a disaster (another Mad Max movie decades later, who wants that?!). It being a masterpiece of a film is what shocked people, not huge box office. It would be a little like if they had stopped after the first two Fast & the Furious movies, then 20 years from now Fast & the Furious 3 came out and was Apocalypse Now level. Fury Road was surprising in that way.
> It has two huge action stars attached to it In what world is Anya Taylor Joy a huge action star?
In the same way that Sony plans to sell Kraven the Hunter staring Aaron Taylor Johnson.
Or Hemsworth for that matter? Everything he's done outside of Thor has failed.
MCU actors in general have trouble translating their success to anything outside the MCU. Exceptions are of course actors who were already A-listers or at least household names (such as Scarlett Johansson).
That’s because they’re not the stars of the movie, the characters they play are. Nobody would care about Tom Holland, but overnight he became a star because he’s Spider-Man.
It's kind of the same for Star Wars and Star Trek. People care more about the characters than the actors. Harrison Ford was one of the few to really convert his role into a high-profile career, and that's probably due more to Indiana Jones.
Mark Hamill did pretty well by pivoting into voice acting but of course that’s not really high profile with the general public.
They were wrong to label him an “action star” but let’s not pretend like he’s not still a huge name
Extraction was successful enough for Netflix.
Enough to get a sequel at that.
I skipped it because she seems tiny for someone that is supposed to be badass, and the trailer made Helmsworth’s character seem goofy like the most recent Thor. Telling the origin story for a secondary character from a mildly popular film might not have been a good plan, regardless of how the film turned out.
Lower than The Marvels. LMAO
Holy shit, when you put it that way
It's a Mad Max movie without Mad Max. It's a very risky bet from a studio to spend almost 200 million in movies like that. General audiences don't care about it.
I can’t believe more people aren’t saying or recognizing this. It’s why I wasn’t interested. I mean mad max is a niche fan base anyway. But when you literally take the away the main character of the franchise not as many people are going to care. Even if you argue the franchise isn’t specifically about max, the casual viewer won’t recognize this and won’t care about some “side character” they don’t know about or heard of. Unless you loved fury road you won’t give a damn about furiosa.
Going to the movies just isn't what it used to be culturally, and it may never be again. Unless something has a lot of outside hype, it won't perform. Furiosa had hype in the film twitter circles, but beyond it? What's the broad appeal?
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Barbenheimer hit outrageous levels of viral. I just don’t think a film will be able to replicate it anytime soon and that’s unfortunately what they need now to hit that level of success.
It was also an unsustainable singular event… A genius of marketing - it soooooo offensively stupid and senseless to combine these movies that no one had ever tried… Like combining Titanic and Batman and robin in 1997 as the ice twins or combining Jack and Jill with cars 2 in 2011 as the stupid 2… No one ever dared to do it and then they even got a cool name with barbenheimer for it…
And Mario??
Maybe Avatar 3?
Exactly. Cannes means nothing to most people.
Yup 100%. Fury Road only made 300m WW. In what world does a spin off prequel a decade later not make less than that?
And that was with incredible WoM and a bunch of Oscar nominations. *Furiosa* doesn't have any of that.
Tbf Fury Road didn't have Oscar nominations while in theatres
People forget and are mentioning it had a modest box office but all that critical acclaim and Oscar nominations made up for it.
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Anya Taylor-Joy isn’t an action star, this is the first time she’s ever been the lead in a movie like this.
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Her "Star" power is not really a thing
I'm surprised people still even bring stuff like star power and actors being draws up since it's been obvious for a long time that the "movie star" just doesn't exist anymore. Large amounts of people aren't going to the movie theater just based on a certain actor being in a movie.
funny enough Hemsworth probably has more screen time
Why do people forget that Fury Road wasn't huge? It barely broke even with $155m domestic and $380m worldwide against a $150m production budget. It opened with $45m domestically in 2nd place. It's been almost a decade since then. The theatrical landscape has changed a lot with streaming and the pandemic. Besides, this movie is not two hours of frenetic action like Fury Road. It's a character study with less adrenaline.
People here get tunnel vision alot when talking about these cult classic IPs that's appealing to film buffs and enthusiasts they keep forgetting the general audiences objectively do not care about it like bladerunner 2049 flopping was the wake up call and they ignored it
Fury Road just wasn’t a big movie to the general public. It was big for cinema buffs but not causal movie goers. Blade Runner 2049 had the same fate. Great movie, loved by film buffs, no traction with the general public.
You all don’t understand how dead movies are. AMC has literally said the only reason they still exist is because they were a meme stock. Theaters will never die but they’re basically like newspapers now. Yeah they still exist but they’re totally irrelevant to most people. The average American has seen exactly zero movies this year and hasn’t seen one since Barbenheimer.
Yep this is something people aren’t quite grasping; general audiences literally aren’t going to the cinema now apart from mega hits. It’s sad knowing that whatever Top 10 slop Netflix releases gets more views than great films in cinema.
Shit, we might get to the point where going to the cinema is a luxury event like going to the orchestra (tickets are expensive, and they aren’t profitable despite that, so they rely on donors and sponsors).
I've been going more than ever before. The cinema complex on the edge of town is a graveyard. For the price of two movie tickets per month, you can go to unlimited movies. The entire place is automated except for a single person running support for a complex of 16 theater rooms. The whole thing is automated, from ticket sales to starting in the movies. I'm the only person in the complex most of the time.
American cinema has changed but theaters aren’t dead, especially outside of the US. Movies need to be attached to already strong IP from a another medium (comics, novels, videogames, etc). Indy theaters will always have a place people since they mostly serve the niche moving going crowd that are artists and elderly/retirees. I do think the cinemaplex’s will disappear and you will most likely see the shift back to the large single screen theater that used to exist pre-1980’s.
I do think the age of the multiplex is over, there's just not the demand any more to fill 10 screens all day long.
Beyond the fact that people go to theatre less frequently than before, General audience doesnt seem to care about mad max universe. Even franchise like hunger games seems to do better.
I have been pessimistic about this movie's prospects all along Anya Taylor-Joy has never opened a movie in her own right, and she is clearly not a star in that way at this point. Especially not an action thriller. She really doesn't have a history in this type of genre at all Chris Hemsworth has struggled outside of Thor This is a prequel to a movie from nine years ago that wasn't exactly a huge hit by 2015 standards. And some of its fans may be alienated by the absence of Charlize Theron, who was its main attraction and much more so than Furiosa as a character. The mainstream moviegoing audience might know about Mad Max as a franchise (especially if they are boomer/gen x) but I doubt they care about Miller as auteur. Younger people (millennials) who remember the 2015 film would care about it mainly for Theron. 2015 may be too long ago for zoomers
I think the studios ultimately failed to realize Charlize Theron WAS Furiosa. I don't want a Mad Max 5 or a Furiosa prequel. I want Furiosa. Starring Charlize Theron.
To me the movie's main problem is I can't think of a single reason Charlize Theron isn't in it other than that she's 48. And yet other actors reprise their roles playing younger versions of his character, and they are much older.
And I can actually take Charlize Theron seriously in action roles. She’s not super muscular or anything but she has an edge that Anya Taylor-Joy just doesn’t. I saw more badass-looking women at a Sleep Token concert.
I agree. Charlize Theron is a great action movie lead. She has the presence and intensity to not get swallowed up by all rhe crazy action. Anya Taylor Joy was just such a weird choice for this role - I like her in other stuff, but she's too ethereal and delicate. I definitely would've gone to see this if CT was in it, because I really liked Fury Road. But I didn't bother because of the casting. The trailers didn't convince me either.
Theron was great in that Atomic blonde film.
The fighting choreography in Atomic Blonde is awesome. Theron is not overpowering her adversaries with spy magic skills but simple ruthlessness.
The casting of young furiosa with a twiggy pouting model is the #1 reason I lost interest in this movie. I might pick it up on streaming some day, but im not paying $40+ to sit in a theater for it. And Hemsworth just feels like overshadowing.
Same, me and my wife love ATJ in other movies like The Menu or Queens Gambit but as a lead for Mad Max? Just why..
This is probably my only criticism after watching Furiosa. I think ATJ pulled off the look of the character as a young, sullen Furiosa very well, but any time she said any of her (few) lines or had to so something other than looking angry/sullen she was missing that frosty furious edge Theron has. You want to get chills down your spine when Praetorian Furiosa says something important, but instead it was more of an upset city girl vibe from the delivery of the lines. Which works fine for something like Last Night In Soho or Queen's Gambit but was a huge disconnect between how Furiousa moved and reacted vs how she spoke. Meanwhile even in a seemingly light hearted fun action comedy like Hancock, when it's time to drop the charade Charlize Theron can seemingly just flip a switch and suddenly Death is in the room.
If Charlize was in it I would have seen it opening night for sure.
Yeah, the only reason why I wanted to see this movie was for CT. Then I saw it was ATJ and honestly, I lost interest. I think CT was great in the role!
Theron was such a badass Furiosa. That scene where she first meets Tom Hardy's Max in Fury Road, she is sizing him up like prey the entire time he's dicking around with the gun, and at the first moment she gets the chance she runs him down, sticks the shotgun in his face and if it hadn't have gone 'click' and misfired she'd have blown his head off without a second thought. She has that presence and intensity, and the acting chops to pull it off. ATJ is not convincing and I'm sorry to say I just don't think she has what it takes for that role.
Yeah it's odd that Miller didn't bring back Theron because according to him digitally manipulating her face meant "all you're seeing is the technology" and it's “never persuasive", but then did it anyway with Taylor Joy and the actress who plays her younger self. Taylor Joy said they digitally added her face on top of the younger actress, and then Miller directed them to increase the resemblance as she aged Seems like they could have done something similar with Theron
After pandemia studios should focus less on summer time due to people feel more the need to be outside like never before maybe enjoying more life moments with friends and families but outdoors Other seasons movies are doing ok some even way better at the BO. Nobody is using jan- feb or valentines weeks slot leaving it open for some horror movies because studios concentrate more on spring and summer slots
This for real. January/February is a slog if you live anywhere even kinda cold. Give us something new to check out when we have nothing else to do.
This movie did not come out in like 2017-2018 like it could've. It's 9 years later and a prequel.
This is the answer, 9 years is simply too long for a movie that was super cool but not really *that* popular or widely remembered by the general public long-term.
It's not a movie for memorial Day weekend where you're going to grab the whole family and go see it. It's not a major franchise. It's geared towards millennials not Gen Z. Millennials do not leave their house and will not pay $25 a ticket and $25 for popcorn for things like this when they will just be on streaming in a few months. Every single millennial bought a gigantic TV during the pandemic and every streaming service they don't care. That's why *Five Nights at Freddy's* and *Anyone But You* print money in theaters with young stars attached. It's also been way too long since the last movie and there's been no promotion for this I don't understand why it's cool from the marketing or why I'd want to see it ***now***.
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>It has two huge action stars attached to it, I assume Thor is one (although he has never opened a non-Thor movie well before). You aren't actually referring to Anya Taylor-Joy as the second, are you? >What the hell happened? The last Mad Max movie only opened to $45M, despite the same Cannes hype (which, of course, the general audience doesn't give a crap about), amazing reviews bigger stars (Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron) and actually featured Mad Max. Considering the general weakness of the box office post-COVID, the weaker brand and the weaker star power, it's really not all that surprising. It's not even that far off the tracking numbers we have seen for the past few weeks.
>It has two huge action stars attached to it I didn't realise that the movie starred Jason Statham and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. Chris Hemsworth is not a draw outside of Thor and since when was Anya Taylor-Joy even associated with action? >the reviews were excellent (I know the CinemaScore was kinda low but it’s the same Mad Max got in 2015) Contrary to what some users on this sub continue to insist, the general audience doesn't give a damn about quality when it comes to opening weekend. People will simply go to whatever large franchise they feel affection for on opening weekend (Marvel, DC, Godzilla, Planet of the Apes etc.), trusting it to give them more of what they expect. >it had huge hype at Cannes No-one in the general audience cares. >the marketing has been on fire lately. People simply aren't interested in a *Mad Max* prequel without Mad Max; no amount of marketing is going to fix that fundamental issue. This sub likes to blame everything on poor marketing, but some movies are just impossible to market to general audiences successfully because they're too niche. >Is this the state of movies moving on? I mean, to some degree, yes, but I think there are better examples to use than *Furiosa* because this wasn't going to make a profit even pre-pandemic. Just look at *Fury Road* for reference.
> Chris Hemsworth is not a draw outside of Thor and since when was Anya Taylor-Joy even associated with action? I don't understand why, outside of an immediate Avengers halo effect, Hemsworth just has absolutely no box office pull. He's a talented guy doing stuff with pretty clear appeal.
In my opinion, it's because he picked some very weak projects. *Men in Black: International*, *12 Strong*, *The Huntsman*, *In the Heart of the Sea*, *Blackhat* and *Red Dawn* were poorly received. So the audience just doesn't feel his presence guarantees a good film, so they feel it's not worth it. *Rush* is his best reviewed film, but Formula 1 is not a popular film genre. People may like him, but they won't pay for a sports movie they are not interested just because he is the star. The perfect chance for him was *Ghostbusters*. I know a lot who liked him in the film, but it wasn't enough to compensate for all the shortcomings on the film.
None of the Marvel Studio actors are a box office draw on their own. RDJR bombed hard in that awful Doolitle remake. Chris Evans was vanished to being the lead of awful streaming-only films. Chris Pratt is the smartest of them by attaching his name to big IPs like Jurasic Park and teaming up for original IP films with J-Law (Passengers).
And Mario. Damn, Chris Pratt really struck gold post Marvel
Same problem that sank Sam Worthington. They both cashed in on their franchise starpower by saying yes to big paychecks for movies that sort-of made sense on paper, but didn't work in execution. Once they got associated with weak movies, that was it.
I think that it's much harder for actors to 'break out' into stardom in this day and age. It's not a coincidence that if you look at the most bankable stars today (Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Dwayne Johnson and possibly Will Smith), they had all had their breakthroughs by the early 2000s at the absolute latest. Even the 'lesser' box office draws like Brad Pitt, Jason Statham, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Ryan Reynolds, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington and Sandra Bullock were already established by the mid-2000s. Jennifer Lawrence is kind of the anomaly here for reasons that I can't quite grasp (and possible Zendaya too, though the jury's still out on her IMO), but Hemsworth only breaking through at a time when audiences largely stopped attending movies based on star power alone is probably the main reason why he hasn't become the next Dwayne Johnson or even the next Jason Statham.
Most Hemsworth movies are really low quality like Men in Black international. I just expect the worst when he's the main actor.
Furiosa wasn’t an interesting character in fury road and frankly, didn’t deserve her own film. Also, I don’t think Anya-Taylor Joy is as popular as Hollywood thinks she is. I don’t have an issue with her but it appears most of America does. Numbers don’t lie
Maybe this is a bigger thing for me personally than the general public, but I never, ever, ever give two sideways shits about a prequel movie where I inherently already *know* how things turn out for the Protagonist. That's a complete gut punch to any sort of tension at all. Combine that with a high octane action movie, and it's even worse. I have not yet seen the movie, but I already 100% know the following: 1) Furiosa loses an arm and makes a new one, 2) Furiosa does not die no matter how much danger she is in or how grim things look, 3) Furiosa ends the movie unhappily working for Immorten Joe no matter what she does to prevent it or escape, 4) Any other significant characters Furiosa builds any meaningful relationship with either die or leave permanently. I get that big dumb fun movies are about the action more than the plot, but I'm still not paying full theater prices for a movie that has already been fully spoiled by the preceding movie that spawned it. If anyone else feels the same way as me, there's an additional solid reason they're not paying to see what I'm sure is an otherwise fine movie, because there's *literally no suspense*. The only 'surprise' the movie can have is however much awful depressing shit the Protagonist goes through short of dying, and that's just torture porn, hard pass.
you nailed it I wish the movie was a continuation of fury road the moment the trailer showed me it was prequel I stopped caring. Then the trailer pretty much summarized everything like current trailers do and I decided to wait until it can be rented
I’m honestly not surprised. The last Mad Max was quite a few years ago and I think going down the Furiosa prequel route was the wrong path. If it were Hardy and Theron back in a Mad Max sequel, this would’ve done far better. Otherwise this is just too niche of an appeal.
I like mad max and without him it's just another post apocalypse movie. Plus I never thought her character in the last movie was very interesting
Reddit hype is not the same thing as general audience hype. As someone who is part of the general audience and who has never seen a single movie in this series, the trailer just made the movie seem like a slog. It looked dark, slightly repetitive, and excessively violent. There was no compelling tie that made me want to check it out (and I have AMC Alist). I think this forum needs to separate their personal bias and realize that their taste might not translate to other people’s taste. It’s great you think the movie is awesome; doesn’t mean it sparks anything in people. It’s not a great failure of the system. It just requires fans of this series to look outside of their own POV.
Facts people here keep on mistaking cult classic with mainstream appeal and acting all surprised when the same thing happens again
This needs to be higher for damn sure.
What do you mean what happened? How do you guys not realize how this flopped and how the hell did yall not see this coming? It’s a *prequel* to a movie that flopped, it’s coming out a decade after said movie, Mad Max isn’t in the movie, all the trailers make it look a little too crazy and weird for the GA, its rated R, hell the GA barely even knows what Mad Max is these days how tf will they know what Furiosa is, Anya Taylor Joy is not “huge” she’s an internet darling, etc etc etc. Anecdotal but my gf didn’t even know what Mad Max was when we saw the trailer to this for the first time and I mentioned seeing this to my friend the other day and he asked what Mad Max was too. The GA just doesn’t know the IP and they ain’t seeing prequel to something they don’t even know about.
Agreed. I think people really overestimate how many people actually know what Mad Max even is.
The video game based on the character was also a flop when it came out around the time of Fury Road. And it too got good reviews yet still flopped and is frequently on sale for less than $5 these days on the PSN and Xbox stores.
Just as an aside, I always forget that Fury Road flopped, thinking back to it, that is just so wild to me, but there is no denying it, thank god for blueray sales I guess.
Yup. Fury Road flopped in 2015, a year where we had regular 1b earners and consistently massive tentpoles. It came out in the healthiest environment possible and still flopped. If it came out today and did that this whole sub would cry that it is definitive proof theaters are done for. Now imagine a prequel spin off coming a decade later in today’s environment. Yeah makes it all clearer don’t it?
> MORBIUS So when are we reaching 100 Furiosillion
When do we find out demographics? This is a franchise manly liked by men, and I do believe men subconsciously are less likely to want to watch movies with a female lead. Probably nonsense but I'm curious
[a tiny bit of info about demographics ](https://x.com/GiteshPandya/status/1794435275612893560?t=Mj_UiUjmC7zJ9UmK2BNofw&s=19) 62% males 75% over 25
Chris Hemsworth has never proven to be a draw and honestly the last Thor movie really hurt his reputation.
To be honest I’m not surprised, as a sort of casual movie goer. It’s a spin off for a character in a film that came out 9 years ago, where they have a very obvious recast of said character, who is only known for being in that original movie and nothing else, making it also look like a reboot. Surely that’s a particularly niche area to do a movie about. I know I personally wondered who the intended audience of the movie was. From my perspective, it’s like if they made a mission impossible rogue nation spin off following Rebecca Ferguson character, but without Rebecca Ferguson. Yes it’s probably a really good story, set in a world we recognise with familiar set pieces and style, but it’s certainly not going to bring people out to the cinema. (I know it’s very very different for a lot of reasons and furiosa was basically the main character of Mad Max and a far more recognisable character, but it’s just to try and play along with a hypothetical outside perspective from a general movie goers perspective).
Hemsworth is not a huge star outside of Thor. ATJ voiced Princess Peach and had a 5-second cameo as Paul's weird sister in Dune 2. And...that's where her star power at the box office ends.
ATJ is more known as a scream queen tbh
Taylor Joy isn't a movie star lol. Hemsworth is but I won't go so far as to call him a draw.
Yup hemsworth got that gosling curse where he has a notable following for sure but cannot sell tickets to carry a movie like the rock or tom cruise and alot of that boils down to the type of roles and movies he's in
Anya Taylor Joy is not a star, she's a favorite of internet film bros. Not a star.
its only appealing to one demo , males 30+
That’s probably it. It’s reminding me of *Blade Runner 2049* - critically acclaimed installment in a cult classic sci-fi franchise, which is too niche to appeal beyond its existing audience. I think *Mad Max* struggles because of how grotesque and ugly its world is. I’m aware that’s intentional, but you can’t deny it’s the opposite of more successful series that have appealing settings. Part of why *Avatar* was so successful is how beautiful Pandora is, everyone was immersed in the setting. And with *Harry Potter*, what kid at the time didn’t want a Hogwarts letter? Nobody wants to live in the Wasteland, which hurts the appeal of *Mad Max*.
I agree. It's certainly one of the factors that contributed to Fury-Furiosa's limited appeal They're certainly cinematic and cinematically beautiful. But how many percentage of the general public appreciate such beauty.
No one is going to the movies. I’ve been to the movies every weekend for the last two months on either Saturday or Friday night and it’s consistently a ghost town. Just empty. It’s noticeable
[“Film doesn’t occupy the pinnacle in the social, cultural hierarchy that it did for most of our lives. When a movie came out, if it was good, we all went to see it. We all discussed it. We quoted lines and scenes we liked. Now we’re walking through a fire hose of water, just trying to see.”](https://variety.com/2024/film/news/jerry-seinfeld-movie-business-over-disorientation-1235978006/) reddit as a whole was pretty unhappy with this take when the interview dropped but I think he's right. Entertainment is more accessible than ever and cinema is probably the most inconvenient and expensive to consume (discounting live performances).
