The battle at the box office over Memorial Day weekend saw Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga go head-to-head with The Garfield Movie, with the former barely outpacing Garfield. Despite the high-octane thrills of the Mad Max franchise prequel and the family-friendly allure of a lasagna-loving cat, both films struggled, with each grossing around US$25 million over the weekend and an estimated US$31 million through Monday. This marks one of the weakest Memorial Day openings in nearly three decades.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, directed by George Miller, premiered with a modest US$25.5 million in North America, just narrowly surpassing The Garfield Movie, which brought in US$24.7 million. Although Furiosa led the weekend, its victory signals a broader issue: the declining performance of what traditionally has been a blockbuster weekend. Last year, Disney’s The Little Mermaid remake debuted with US$118 million, highlighting a stark contrast to this year’s figures.
The prequel, starring Anya Taylor-Joy as the titular Furiosa, depicts her tumultuous past and battles in a dystopian wasteland. Despite positive reviews, the film’s financial performance fell short of expectations, especially considering its substantial US$168 million budget. In contrast, The Garfield Movie, featuring Chris Pratt, fetched an additional US$38 million internationally, bringing its global total to US$91 million — outperforming Furiosa‘s worldwide haul of US$58.9 million.
Other films like John Krasinski’s IF and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes also saw tepid results, with IF adding US$16 million domestically for a total of US$58 million, and Kingdom earning US$13 million in its third weekend. The Fall Guy, a romantic comedy starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, rounded out the top five, managing to add US$5.9 million domestically.
This Memorial Day weekend has clearly not lived up to past performances, which saw major earnings from films like Top Gun: Maverick with US$160 million and A Quiet Place Part II with US$57 million despite the latter’s pandemic-era release. The overall box office is down 22% from last year and 41% from 2019, indicating a significant downturn in cinema-going habits.
The industry looks to upcoming releases like Deadpool & Wolverine, Despicable Me 4, and Inside Out 2 to rejuvenate the summer box office.
Natalie is a big fan of anything related to movies, TV shows, games, and comics — you name it. When she’s not reading or geeking out about the latest shows on Netflix, she’s probably playing Honkai: Star Rail, cosplaying, or daydreaming of meeting her idols.
