The numbers show that women and young moviegoers just aren’t showing up for the female-led dystopian “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” and it might mean the end of the franchise.
The latest “Mad Max” film opened domestically over the long Memorial Day weekend and brought in a dismal $32 million at the box office, just barely beating the Chris Pratt-led “The Garfield Movie,” which earned $31 million that same weekend.
Diving into the numbers, the Blaze News found that between the Charlize Theron-Tom Hardy 2015 “Mad Max: Fury Road” and the newest one led by actress Anya Taylor-Joy, fewer women and young moviegoers turned out to watch the George Miller-directed film.
In 2015, the film’s opening weekend saw a 40% female audience, compared to the latest opening weekend, which only saw 29% female viewership, the outlet noted.
At the same time, the film also failed to attract the coveted age demographic of ages 18-24, with only 21% turning up to watch the latest “Mad Max” film compared to 31% who trekked to the theaters in 2015, the outlet noted.
‘Mad Max’ franchise likely put on hold after ‘Furiosa’ flop sees far fewer female viewers than it hoped https://t.co/cPoMtQtxnU pic.twitter.com/iRmL2ilac3
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) June 4, 2024
Ahead of the release, Miller talked about the franchise’s future and made it clear there are more stories to tell based on how the latest film does.
“There’s certainly more stories there,” Miller told the press at the annual Cannes Film Festival. “Maybe because in order to tell the story of ‘Fury Road,’ we needed to know about ‘Furiosa’ and Max in the years before.”
“I’ll definitely see how this goes,” he added.
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Entertainment Reporter Christian Toto told Blaze News that the film’s struggle “won’t kill the franchise. Hollywood clings to IPs[Intellectual Properties], even the ones that have stumbled or collapsed.”
“See the ‘Terminator’ saga, which had not one but two duds before they took a knee. Still, a ‘Mad Max’ movie without Mad Max — or the actress who embodied the title character — is a tough sell,” he added. “Audiences increasingly know films are hitting video on-demand faster and faster these days. Just look at ‘The Fall Guy,’ already available for home viewing.”
Over the weekend, the “Mad Max” film fell behind “The Garfield Movie” in first place and the live-action animated movie “IF” from John Krasinski in second. The Miller-directed film landed in the third spot as the film has continued to struggle since it opened on May 24 — earning just $10.7 million over the weekend to bring its gross total in the states to $49.7 million at the time of this publication. The movie cost $168 million to produce and in its second weekend out, it fell 59 percent in sales, as previously reported.
Related: Box Office On Track To Have Worst Memorial Day Weekend Since 1995, ‘Garfield’ And ‘Furiosa’ Flounder
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