‘Furiosa’ Inches Out ‘Garfield’ With $32M But No. 1 Race Still Close In Dullest Memorial Day Weekend

FRIDAY PM: Ouch, it’s looking really bad. Warner Bros.’ Furiosa is possibly posting the lowest opening for a Memorial Day movie in 41 years with a 4-day between $31M-$35M. How the holy heck is that? If the George Miller-directed prequel comes in on the low end, the last time a No. 1 movie or Memorial Day opening title filed a 4-day gross take that was lower was back in 1983, when Return of the Jedi made $30.5M — and that was a lot of money back then.

Furiosa is seeing an estimated $11M for today (including previews) and around $27.5M for the 3-day at 3,804 theaters, and that includes Imax.

‘Furiosa’ Up In Smoke With $31M-$33M, Possibly Lowest Memorial Day Opening In 41 Years, Might Get Clawed By ‘Garfield’

SATURDAY AM: This weekend at the Memorial Day box office, the film industry seems to be questioning its existence, ready to jump out of a window. How can a genius George Miller directed tentpole prequel with great reviews, 4 1/2 stars PostTrak exits to the multi-Oscar winning Mad Max: Fury Road not be working? The entire theatrical business is destined for streaming, oh, no! People will forever stay on their couches!

Furiosa is still on track to be the lowest Memorial Day opening in 41 years (at the high end), with a four-day between $31M-33M. And as we told you in our summer preview, Alcon/Sony’s Garfield could beat her with a similar 4-day haul. As great as anyone (including myself) might think Furiosa is, Mad Max is finite fanboy property, R-rated at that, and he’s always been. Ya know how many 13-17 year olds went to Furiosa yesterday? 2% per PostTrak. That’s a big boy quad that’s missing. Do you know how many women went yesterday? 29%. Adults over 55? 9%. Mad Max and Furiosa aren’t everyone movies.

Now Hollyweird can stop pretending Anya Taylor Joy is a bankable star.

On a budget of $168 millions

You know I was surprised when they announced spin-off back then. As people were disappointment and annoyed that movie pushed Mad Max to be supporting character in his own movie and made Furiosa lead. But movie was gorgeous and stunning visually and Charlize Theron was ok, so they eat that up.

And for some reason Hollywood decided that everyone liked Furiosa so much that they care about her origin story. Now those producers can see that no one cared. Not to mention other actress is playing.

Mad Max, apart from stunning visuals, has a STORY. They had to escape and were moving to place. It was a chase movie. It had Tom Hardy in his prime, Charlize Theron and Nickolas Hoult.

This movie has only c-lister tv actress Anya Taylor-Joy no one cares about. And movies premise is - young Furiosa looking sad and bored, and some generic bad guy. No wonder no one cared.

Real movie stars got old and cant carry a movie anymore. And all those new faces that Hollywood tries to make happen is not working. How many flops and lost money before Hollywood producers will understand that Austin Butler, Jacob Elordi, Paul Mescal, Glen Powell, Florence Pugh, Jenna Ortega, Sydney Sweeney, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zendaya are not movie stars. They can have occasional hit when it's part of franchise like Scream, Marvel or about Elvis. Or one low budget rom-com. But it doesn't mean they can carry and open 150 millions movie.

Imagine there were producers who thought that Anya Taylor-Joy can make 200 millions for their movie. When original Furiosa was Charlize Theron. Who people actually know. That Twisters movie with Glen Powell will probably flop too with some 40 millions opening. On a budget of 200 millions. And zero stars.

Well we sure as hell ain't getting a belated sequel to Dredd now!

This film was always an odd choice to tentpole for Memorial Day Weekend. The genre is very niche.

‘Garfield’ In Dead Heat With ‘Furiosa’ At Weakened Memorial Day Weekend Box Office
https://deadline.com/2024/05/box-office-garfield-furiosa-1235941424/

SUNDAY AM UPDATE: The 4-day fight between Warner Bros‘ Furiosa and Alcon/Sony‘s The Garfield Movie will drag out into Monday, both titles currently in a dead heat, eyeing $31M over 4-days, $25M over 3-days.

There are those showing the 48-year old comic strip feline eating the one-armed desert renegade’s lunch with $31M to $30.96M, but it’s too close to call right now. In regards to Garfield upsetting Furiosa, we told you this was in the cards.

Whether Garfield or Furiosa wins, it will be the lowest opening for a Memorial Day weekend No. 1 title in 29 years, the last being 1995’s Casper at $22M.

After beating Furiosa on Saturday, $8.3M to $8M, Garfield looks to have the edge over it on Sunday and Monday. Garfield is booked at 4,035 boosted by some PLFS. Furiosa is in play at 3,804 juiced by 400 Imax auditoriums, Dolby, 4DX, D-box, etc.

MONDAY AM: Warner Bros.’ Furiosa had an edge over The Garfield Movie on Sunday, $7.6M to $7.4M, which is putting her ahead on the four-day estimates of the orange cat, $32M to $31.1M.

Everyone who thinks that this past Memorial Day weekend was some sort of doomsday at the box office has to get a grip as it all boils down to product: Female-led action movies, outside of franchise pics Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman, have always been challenged as a sub-genre at the box office, and Furiosa‘s 3-day ($26.3M) and 4-day are in the realm of such pics as the 2018 Alicia Vikander Tomb Raider ($23.6M 3-day), and even 2019’s Alita ($28.5M 3-day, $37.2M 4-day). Hope for a better summer resides in the first day presales for Disney/Marvel Studios’ Deadpool and Wolverine which are the best for an R-rated movie at $8M+; that Shawn Levy directed threequel opening on July 26.