There’s more reason for Garfield to detest Mondays.
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” narrowly defeated “The Garfield Movie” on North American charts in a thrilling box office battle. Warner Bros. and Sony both announced on Sunday that their own films had debuted at number one, taking in about $25 million for the weekend and a projected $31 million through Monday, Memorial Day vacation.
“Furiosa” made $26.2 million over the weekend and $32 million for the four days, according to Monday’s estimates. Surprisingly, “Garfield” trailed closely with $24 million for the weekend and $31.1 million during the four days.
Regardless of the ultimate arrangement, this Memorial Day weekend has been the worst in almost thirty years, with the exception of 2020, when COVID forced theatres to close completely. With a nearly 36% drop, box office comparisons to the same holiday weekend in 2023 are especially difficult because Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” remake, which debuted with one of the biggest totals of the season, took first place with $118 million. Hollywood’s summertime difficulties are exacerbated overall by this Memorial Day break, as Comscore reports that ticket sales are still 22% behind 2023 and a worrisome 41% behind 2019.
“Furiosa,” the fifth film in director George Miller’s post-apocalyptic “Mad Max” series, has an especially underwhelming showing. Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth appear in the R-rated movie, which was predicted to open with $40 million to $45 million during the holiday season. And considering the $168 million budget for the movie, even that wouldn’t have been a great start. “Furiosa” has made $65 million worldwide. If it keeps going at this rate, it will be hard to top the last installment in the franchise, “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which starred Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy and opened to $45 million (not over the Thanksgiving weekend) before taking home a respectable $380 million worldwide.
Despite receiving excellent reviews, many contend that “Furiosa” underperformed because prequels, particularly those without the original stars, seldom perform as well as straight sequels. Additionally, this action epic’s target audience of older male moviegoers did not grow.
“Garfield,” which took $60 million to make, is off to a respectable start for a family movie, coming in between $30 and $35 million under budget.
With $66.3 million in overseas box office receipts and $91.1 million in total revenue, the film is doing well during its theatrical run. In the Alcon Entertainment-financed and -produced film “The Garfield Movie,” Chris Pratt plays the title cat, who despises Mondays and adores lasagna.