Hilarious they need to stop at 1984 as a (brainless) point of comparison...this is so horrible they aren't even taking inflation into account!
Going to be a bad summer for Hollywood...people have had it with all of this recycled junk. And FURIOSA looked like crap from its trailers too...
FRIDAY AFTERNOON: 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.
If Furiosa hits at the high end of its current range at $35M, then that’s the lowest Memorial Day weekend opening since 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which did $33.9M. Those ’80s grosses are not adjusted for inflation.
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. For all the hell we gave Disney/Lucasfilm’s Solo: A Star Wars Story back in pre-Covid 2018 with a $103M 4-day debut, jeez, that looks insanely rich by comparison.
I will eventually see it at home but it sure doesn't look magnificent. Part of the problem beyond the rampant CGI is Taylor-Joy looks absurd, barely 100 lbs running around as this anorexic desert warrior. Linda Hamilton transformed her body for T2, and nobody laughed at her. They could've cast someone with the physical build to at least make her partially convincing.
Also have to think some of this is due to Mad Max fans just being pissed at the bait and switch Miller pulled with Fury Road. A movie being sold as Mad Max but really wasn't followed by a prequel not a lot of people wanted to see.
Again, you get boxed in as a 'sexist' for saying this, but in the last 10-15 years, how many franchises with a male lead have been resurrected with a gender swap? And why? MAD MAX, STAR WARS, PREDATOR, EVIL DEAD, GHOSTBUSTERS, etc.
And it's not about "equity," it's entirely about $$$. Trying to leverage the male audience that supports those movies with a gender swap intended to drive female audiences towards the project while maintaining the male-dominated fanbase that's already there. "Expand viewership" means more audience -- in theory. But that's not how it works most of the time. Sequels/prequels might be "safe money" but they're diminishing returns.
I think the issue with FURIOSA is both a) the Mad Max series has a finite fan base and it's not what people think it is (see the returns on the originals, they made $$ but they weren't huge hits domestically) and b) George Miller was more in love with that character than anyone else. He seems disinterested in the character of Mad Max which is ironic because they're still using the name to sell it to an audience...even though the character isn't even in the movie!
AndyDursin wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2024 10:36 am
Again, you get boxed in as a 'sexist' for saying this, but in the last 10-15 years, how many franchises with a male lead have been resurrected with a gender swap? And why? MAD MAX, STAR WARS, PREDATOR, EVIL DEAD, GHOSTBUSTERS, etc.
And it's not about "equity," it's entirely about $$$. Trying to leverage the male audience that supports those movies with a gender swap intended to drive female audiences towards the project while maintaining the male-dominated fanbase that's already there. "Expand viewership" means more audience -- in theory. But that's not how it works most of the time. Sequels/prequels might be "safe money" but they're diminishing returns.
I'm amazed that people are still pulling the "You just don't like strong women characters!" card in 2024, even watching box office for sex-swapped franchises bottoming out left and right. Maybe if we got WELL-WRITTEN female reboots, we'd respond to them. No one was grousing about Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hamilton or Uma Thurman kicking ass in action roles from decades past, perhaps because they weren't replacing male heroes in their own franchises, putting them in the ground and urinating on their graves with a smirk.
