George Miller’s Mad Max franchise is one of the most revered action franchises of all time. After it spun out the Tom Hardy-starrer Oscar-winning Mad Max: Fury Road, all we got is a prequel about the character Furiosa. Starring Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy, two immensely popular actors, the movie made its debut with rave reviews but has been struggling at the box office.
While even fans described the film as incredible to watch, the movie failing to live up to its expectations at the box office can be attributed to one Star Wars movie. Solo: A Star Wars Story was a bomb at the box office despite being based on one of the best fictional characters of all time. And while the two franchises share little similarity, the fate of Solo seems to predict that Furiosa was deemed to fail.
Solo: A Star Wars Story Might Have Predicted Furiosa’s Box Office Performance
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is an origin story for Charlize Theron’s Fury Road character and a sequel to the Academy Award-winning film. Starring Anya Taylor-Joy in the lead, the film received some spectacular reviews along with a long standing ovation earlier this month at Cannes. However, so far, the film made against a budget of $168 million (via Deadline) has failed to wow audiences at the box office.
After being dethroned by fellow Marvel star Chris Pratt’s The Garfield Movie, Chris Hemsworth‘s Furiosa has managed to gross just $114.4 million at the global box office so far (via Deadline). Although not a shocking feat for a movie that has a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, for acclaimed movies before have failed to perform well at the box office, Furiosa’s fate should have been predictable had the makers taken notes from the Star Wars franchise.
Solo: A Star Wars Story debuted with some mixed critical reviews, yet many described it as a fun movie. An origin story for the titular character of Han Solo, the film failed terribly at the box office. Made against a budget of over $300 million, it grossed just $392 million worldwide (via Deadline/ The Numbers).
The movie failed miserably despite Han Solo being way more popular than the character Furiosa and having a spectacular franchise backing him. And if that doesn’t hint that Furiosa had no good chance at the box office, then consider that the movie, despite coming from the successful Mad Max franchise, faces an uphill battle to surpass the expectations set by its predecessors and achieve significant box office success.
Fans React to Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Box Office Performance
Anya Taylor-Joy’s Mad Max character Furiosa is not as popular as characters like Han Solo. Given the past performances of female-led movies, it is no surprise that Furiosa has failed to make an impression on the worldwide box office. Furthermore, with the movie being a prequel to Fury Road, there was hardly any unpredictability as to how it would come to an end.
These are the many reasons that fans have been giving as to why the Mad Max prequel has not been able to perform well.
Ain't this a prequel to a character where you know nothing gonna happen to her? It's like that Han Solo movie that nobody went to see, and Furiousa ain't even as popular as Han Solo
— Kev (elsewhere for the Pricefield) (@breakingdead1) June 2, 2024
Well, it's not interesting or intriguing to contemporary audiences.
Because:
A. It is playing at a cinema,
B. Nobody (at a massive scale) cares, about the prequel of a story they didn't already care about.
C. The cast is not strong enough to drag audiences to movies, they…— Devrim V. (@DevrimVardar) June 2, 2024
Stop putting women into what was a man's role. People know who Mad Max is. No one knows who furiosa. It feels like a spin off.
— Warhammer Mentioned? (@WarhammerMents) June 2, 2024
At the end of the day it’s an R-Rated prequel about a dead side character years too late. It doesn’t matter at all how popular the first one was. It was never gonna be a big money maker and I doubt that was why it was made to begin with.
— Jason (@amnesia0287) June 2, 2024
Wow a mad max movie without mad max in it didn’t do well? Who would’ve thought…
— M (@Dngr_Crazy) June 2, 2024
With some time left before Furiosa’s theatrical run comes to an end, die-hard fans of the franchise hold out hope that the movie will at least recover its production costs. As for the future of the series, only time will tell what lies ahead!
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is in theatres now.
