Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga failed to deliver a punch at the Memorial Day weekend box office.
The Mad Max prequel debuted with an estimated $25.5 million between Friday and Sunday, box office tracking company Comscore reported earlier today.
The R-rated action film from director George Miller stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, along with John Howard, Elsa Pataky, Tom Burke, Alyla Browne, Lachy Hulme, Nathan Jones, Goran D. Kleut, and Charlee Fraser.
It has the distinction of earning the lowest total for the #1 film on Memorial Day weekend since the 1990s.
Critics embraced the movie and gave it a strong 89 percent score out of 100 on Rotten Tomatoes. But that wasn’t enough to fill seats in theaters.
Related Story: ‘Not Another Church Movie’ Finds Few Believers With $360K Debut at Box Office
The Warner Bros. release had a reported $168 million production budget, plus millions more were spent for marketing.
The film opened overseas in 75 markets with $33.3 million for a global total of $58.9 million, per Comscore. At this point, its financial fortunes are not looking good.
Analysts had expected it to open domestically in the $40 million range, closer to Mad Max: Fury Road, which debuted to $45.4 million in May 2015. Fury Road starred Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, and ended its theatrical run with $380 million worldwide.
The Garfield Movie came in a close second this weekend with $24.7 million Friday through Sunday, Comscore reported.
The animated comedy is expected to pull in a big chunk of the family audience on Memorial Day and could take first place for the four-day weekend. The family film is based on the popular comic strip and stars Chris Pratt as the voice of Garfield.
Combined, the top two films earned just $50 million domestically over the three-day weekend.
In comparison, Top Gun: Maverick debuted to a record $126 million three-day opening over Memorial Day weekend in May 2022, and earned close to $160 million over four days.
Last year, The Little Mermaid rang up a three-day Memorial Day weekend total of $95.5 million and $118 million over four days.
Elsewhere this weekend, director John Krasinski’s fantasy film IF slipped to third place with $16.1 million Friday through Sunday, Comscore reported.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was fourth with $13.4 million in its third weekend. The Fall Guy rounded out the top five with $5.9 million in its fourth weekend.
Year to date, the domestic box office stands at $2.5 billion through Sunday. That’s down 22 percent from this time in 2023, Comscore reported Sunday.
As reported by @Comscore, this Memorial weekend’s overall total estimated 3-day Domestic box office is $101.0M and YTD 2024 (estimated at $2.559B through Sunday) is down 22% vs. 2023 – @MadMaxMovie @Garfield @IFmovie @ApesMovies @TheFallGuyMovie @csMoviesUS pic.twitter.com/0dxaEx7D1a
— Paul Dergarabedian (@PDergarabedian) May 26, 2024
