‘Furiosa’ and ‘Garfield’ tussle over worst Memorial Day weekend box office in 29 years
Movie theaters are looking more and more like wastelands these days. Neither “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” nor “The Garfield Movie” could save Memorial Day weekend, which is cruising toward a two-decade low.
“Furiosa,” the Mad Max prequel starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, claimed the first place spot for the Friday-Sunday weekend with $25.6 million, according to studio estimates on Sunday. Warner Bros. is waiting until Monday to release its four-day estimates.
“The Garfield Movie,” animated and family-friendly, was the other big new offering this weekend from Sony’s Columbia Pictures and Alcon Entertainment. It is claiming No. 1 for the four-day holiday weekend with an estimated $31.9 million in ticket sales through Memorial Day. Sony estimates its three-day earnings to be $24.8 million.
Aside from Memorial Day 2020, when theaters were closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, these are the lowest-earning No. 1 movies in 29 years, since “Casper” earned $22.5 million (not adjusted for inflation) in its first four days in 1995. Big earners are more typical for the holiday weekend, which has had 10 movies crack $100 million, led by “Top Gun: Maverick’s” record-setting $160 million launch in 2022. Last year, the live-action “The Little Mermaid” joined the group with a $118-million debut. Audiences even turned out in greater numbers over the pandemic-addled weekend in 2021 for “A Quiet Place Part II,” which made more than $57 million.
Other major awards were won by Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light” and the actors Jesse Plemons, Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldaña and Karla Sofía Gascón.
“Furiosa,” which Warner Bros. released on 3,804 screens in the U.S. and Canada, was never expected to join the $100-million opener club. But it was supposed to have a slightly stronger showing in the $40-million range over its first four days. That would have been more in line with its predecessor, “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which opened to $45.4 million in May 2015. “Fury Road,” starring Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, went on to gross nearly $380 million worldwide.
This new origin story in which Taylor-Joy plays a younger version of Theron’s character had a lot of things going for it too, including strong reviews out of the just-wrapped Cannes Film Festival (it has an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes) and a splashy international press tour with many buzzy premiere looks from Taylor-Joy. With a reported $168-million production budget, not accounting for marketing and promotion, “Furiosa” has a long road to profitability.
“The Garfield Movie,” meanwhile, was more modestly budgeted, at a reported $60 million. Chris Pratt voices the lasagna-loving, Monday-hating orange cat in the movie that got scathing reviews from critics (it has a 37% on Rotten Tomatoes). Audiences meanwhile gave both “Furiosa” and “The Garfield Movie” a B-plus CinemaScore and 4.5 stars out of 5 on PostTrak.
In its second weekend, John Krasinski’s “If” fell 53%, adding $16 million through Sunday and $20.7 million through Monday, bringing its domestic total to $63.3 million. Worldwide, it has surpassed $100 million. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” now in its third weekend, added $13.4 million through Sunday, bringing its global total to $294.8 million, making it the fourth-highest grossing film of the year.
We stuffed as many movies into our Cannes schedules as possible during the last two weeks. Though there was much competition, here’s what stayed with us.
Last week, the industry trade the Hollywood Reporter asked, “What happened to the $100 million opener?” Notably, 2024 has had none yet. The biggest of the year has been “Dune: Part Two,” which opened to $82.5 million in March and went on to earn more than $711 million worldwide.
The lack of a recent runaway hit just puts more pressure on upcoming movies to make up the slack. Still on the way are a slew of potential blockbusters like Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Day One” (June 27), Universal’s “Despicable Me 4” (July 3) and “Twisters ” (July 19) and two heavy-hitters from Disney: “Inside Out 2” (June 14) and “Deadpool & Wolverine ” (July 26).
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