‘Furiosa’ Box Office Holds Back George Miller’s Next ‘Mad Max’ Film

Forty-five years after George Miller presented to the public Mad Maxthe author may have finally reached the end of the road through the post-apocalyptic wasteland unless he finds some high-octane gasoline soon.

The revered filmmaker Furiosa: A Mad Max saga bowed to a disappointing $32 million domestically for the four-day Memorial Day weekend and $36.5 million overseas, dimming hopes for Mad Max: The Wastelandanother Max. slice that Miller has been playing with for years.

Miller and Nico Lathouris wrote the screenplays for both The land of waste And Angry as part of the development process Mad Max: Road to Furythe Warner Bros. film. from 2015 that became a surprise awards season juggernaut, winning six Oscars, and became an instant action classic. The land of waste would follow Max Rockatansky the previous year Fury Roadand would involve a young mother – and would (naturally) include lots of action.

In recent weeks, Miller acknowledged that a lot depends on Angry in terms of the possibility of The land of waste. “I will certainly wait and see how this (Angry) disappears, before you even think about it,” Miller told reporters on May 16, the day after the dystopian action-adventure film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, to a 7-minute standing ovation. Sources agree that Wastelands destiny is complicated by Angryat the box office, but point out that it wasn’t even in development. For its part, Warners – of which Miller is a beloved figure – says it is incredibly proud of Angry.

The reaction from moviegoers is probably as positive as Miller hoped; it boasts a 90% positive audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and earned a B+ Cinemascore. But in a troubling and unexpected twist, far fewer women and young adult men showed up than at Miller’s event. Mad Max: Road to Fury nine years ago.

On Fury RoadDuring opening weekend, the split was 60 percent male to 40 percent, according to sources with access to exit surveys conducted by PostTrak. But Angry‘s audience was 71% male and 29% female, a worrying decline and a surprising number for a feature film marketed as a vehicle driven by women. And the 18-24 age group, which is the largest cinema consumer, fell 31 percent for Fury Road at 21 percent for Angry.

Observers note that Fury Road apart, the men fed Mad Max the series has always aimed at a somewhat specialized audience. The first three films, starring Mel Gibson, together grossed less than $70 million.

“IP like Mad Max And ghost hunters East old, and they have the fans they’re going to have,” says a cinema chain executive. “If studios can budget for that, they could make a lot of money.”

Talk about making the next Miller Mad Max the film could resurface if Angry gets a major tune-up and enjoys a road trip down the box office highway, while Fury Road made thanks to a strong multiplier. But many box office experts doubt such a recovery is possible, with one rival studio saying it may struggle to top $90 million domestically.

Fury Road, which successfully revived the franchise by recasting Gibson with Tom Hardy and introducing Charlize Theron’s Furiosa, opened to $45.3 million domestically on its way to $379.4 million in worldwide revenue – a heavyweight by franchise standards and a modest success by Hollywood standards considering it had a net budget of at least $157 million before its release. Yet it had an outsized cultural impact, enough that the previous Warner Bros. regime. gives the green light. Angry, as it seemed like the studio had a revitalized franchise on its hands, and this would be a way to honor Miller and Mad Max’s 45th anniversary. Miller, who remains a beloved figure at the studio, does not like to use visual effects, which drives up production costs.

Miller opted not to bring Theron back, believing that aging technology was being used in films such as Martin Scorsese’s. The Irishman distracted the audience. (Theron, for his part, was sad not to return, despite his grueling experience filming the first one.) Instead, Miller cast Anya Taylor-Joy as a younger version of Theron’s main character and added Chris Hemsworth as Warlord. Angry is also a Mad Max movie without Mad Max (except for a small cameo).

“I think Angry suffered without Charlize. People who see the film love it. The problem is getting them to the cinema. She would have been able to do that,” a studio insider said.

Adds a veteran Hollywood executive: “Fury Road was an outlier in the series. There was also a hot young star and a huge female star. Nine years later, there was neither.

Angry crowns a month of May that will go down in infamy in box office history. Due to strikes, the mega-tents that define summer have been delayed, leading to a general drop in movie attendance and theater chains hoping for a better 2025 (just survive until 25 has become a mantra for studios and theater owners).. Miller’s film was never intended to be an all-audience tentpole that anchors Memorial Day — last year, The little Mermaid debuted to $118 million – but like other recent titles, it still fell well short of projections of $40-45 million.

Wall Street and Hollywood knew this was going to be a tough year, and say claims that the theater is over are exaggerated.

“Let’s see what happens next year with Impossible mission and in 2026 with the next Star Wars film,” says box office analyst Eric Handler of Roth Capital.

All eyes are now on June Inside Out 2 and that of July Despicable Me 4 And Deadpool and Wolverine to boost the market and help other films in the process.

“This fever should calm down in June and July with an outperformance of at least one of the most publicized films to restore wind in the sails of the box office,” estimates Paul Dergarabedian of Comscore.

As for Angry, it has the upcoming weekend to itself and will still be released on Imax and premium large format screens, which accounted for a significant portion of the opening weekend gross. Then it will have to face another vehicle and a heavy feature, that of Sony. Bad Boys: Ride or Die.

—James Hibberd contributed to this story.