Support NeoGAF

[Madflavor]

‘Furiosa’ Box Office Puts Brakes on George Miller’s Next ‘Mad Max’ Movie

Miller penned 'The Wasteland' as part of the development process for 'Fury Road,' but it may not get past the starting line.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

It's Furiover. If Cinema eventually becomes a barren wasteland with nothing but capeshit and horror, we got what we fucking deserved.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

‘Furiosa’ Box Office Puts Brakes on George Miller’s Next ‘Mad Max’ Movie

Miller penned 'The Wasteland' as part of the development process for 'Fury Road,' but it may not get past the starting line.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

It's Furiover. If Cinema eventually becomes a barren wasteland with nothing but capeshit and horror, we got what we fucking deserved.

The first trailer for Furiosa doomed the movie, along with the premise in general. They should have got Tom Hardy back.

 

[Eiknarf]

‘Furiosa’ Box Office Puts Brakes on George Miller’s Next ‘Mad Max’ Movie

Miller penned 'The Wasteland' as part of the development process for 'Fury Road,' but it may not get past the starting line.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

It's Furiover. If Cinema eventually becomes a barren wasteland with nothing but capeshit and horror, we got what we fucking deserved.

Cinema is on borrowed time.
There's no competing with what's at kid's fingertips today, literally hijacking their brain.

When I was young, between the ages 16 and 26, kids my age were seeing a movie a week. If not every week, then definitely every month. Kids today are not doing that. Not even close.

So how is cinema going to survive? On old folks, 45 and up? What happens when we're dead? Yup, you guessed correctly: that's when cinema officially dies (and it will die)

 

[rm082e]

The fact that Fury Road became a break out movie never made sense to me. Mad Max is a niche genre IP. The performance of Furiosa seems more in line with reasonable expectations. Fury Road being so successful seemed like a fluke.

Looking at the bigger picture, I don't see how we continue to get good, original films with the industry still stuck in this old system of Theaters first, then PPV and physical, then the subscription streaming services. It just seems like that pipeline requires movies to do numbers that most films can't handle, so they're not economically viable. Hence everything needing to be a summer blockbuster just to get greenlit.

And as someone with a modest home theater setup, I'm part of the problem. It's too easy to skip the theater and wait to watch the movie at home where I can pause it to go to the bathroom or refill a drink. And save $40 per movie...

 

[Fake]

The reaction from moviegoers is likely as positive as Miller hoped; it boasts a 90 percent positive audience score rating on Rotten Tomatoes and earned a B+ Cinemascore. But in a troubling and unexpected twist, far fewer females and younger male adults showed up than came out for Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road nine years ago.

The industry is making movies for reviewers.

 

[bender]

So how is cinema going to survive?

Korea will save us.

 

[gothmog]

I doubt they're going to make a determination right now. There's plenty of other ways to make money on a movie than opening weekend.

 

[KyoZz]

It's a big IP so don't worry we will get a reboot in about fifteen years with Timothée Chalamet as Max.

 

[SJRB]

Let's break it down:

> make new Mad Max movie, no Mad Max
> wait nine years to make it
> make a prequel about a character that had an excellent arc in Fury Road but isn't interesting enough to warrant a whole movie
> cast someone who is a good actress but can't carry a blockbuster movie
> release an incredibly bad first trailer

Plus:

> cinema ticket prices are outrageous
> a lot of movies get dumped on digital platforms a few months, sometimes even weeks after releasing in cinema
> Mad Max was never a megaton movie series. It is well known and loved by many but this thing was never going to do insane numbers either way

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Wiki has the 2015 Fury Road which starred Hardy and Theron at $380M box office sales at a budget of $155-185M. The movie either made hardly any money or perhaps even lost.

Furiosa has a budget of roughly $160M so in the same ballpark. Expecting this movie to make way more money to guarantee a profit will be a tough slog even though Hemsworth is in it.

 

[daffyduck]

I thought it was another masterpiece?

 

[Madflavor]

I foresee most theaters closing down, and “Cinema” becomes more of a premiere experience for movies. Like going to a broadway show. Everything will immediately go to VoD, but if you want to see it on the big screen for a limited time, you’ll need to drive who knows how many miles to the closest theater. They need to be good theaters too. Really big screens, 300 - 500 seats, good food, staff that enforces good audience behavior etc. They need to make it a positive and exciting experience.

Right now there’s way too many theaters that don’t justify box office performance for the past few years, and it’s going to get worse. Families and teenagers are huge demographics for theater goers. Right now families would rather wait an extra few weeks for VoD, rather than pay $100+ to take their fat wife and kids to the movies. And then teenagers don’t care about movie theaters anymore. Theater chains and Hollywood need to adapt in major ways to survive the changes that are already here.

Legendary films like Back to the Future, Star Wars ‘77, Jurassic Park, or Lord of the Rings would bomb at the box office if they were made and released today. The Silver Screen era has fallen. Begun the Streaming Wars has.

 

[Saber]

Let's break it down:

> make new Mad Max movie, no Mad Max
> wait nine years to make it
> make a prequel about a character that had an excellent arc in Fury Road but isn't interesting enough to warrant a whole movie
> cast someone who is a good actress but can't carry a blockbuster movie
> release an incredibly bad first trailer

Plus:

> cinema ticket prices are outrageous
> a lot of movies get dumped on digital platforms a few months, sometimes even weeks after releasing in cinema
> Mad Max was never a megaton movie series. It is well known and loved by many but this thing was never going to do insane numbers either way

Thats exactly what they gonna do with Gollum, which is a pretty good antagonist for the whole Lord of Rings trilogy but LOL does not warrant a whole movie just for him.

 

[daffyduck]

The trend l'm seeing right now, is more mega theatres that include other types or entertainment.

 

[Fake]

Maybe is time to make a Hermione movie.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

The trend l'm seeing right now, is more mega theatres that include other types or entertainment.

The theatres around me are all the typical bigger box kind of theatres that have a ton of snack bar options, and a small arcade. And in plazas or part of a shopping mall where there's other restaurants or shopping to do. I dont know how many old school small movie only kinds of places there still are. Those have got to be long dead by now???

But if modern theatres with all the new stuff still isnt cutting it, what else do they do?

 

[NeverYouMind]

Mel Gibson is Mad Max and he was carrying the franchise. Gruff and stoic Hardy with female model ensemble was a crapshoot. Not surprised the overly emotional, irrational, and barely scraping by road warrior maiden can't carry the franchise. She is no Xena of the desert. Hell, I would rather watch grown up boomerang kid than this crap.

 

[diffusionx]

I would have watched a Mad Max movie with Tom Hardy opening weekend. But I'm not lining up to go see yet another movie where a compelling lead steps aside for the girlboss, sorry.

 

[tkscz]

The fact that Fury Road became a break out movie never made sense to me. Mad Max is a niche genre IP. The performance of Furiosa seems more in line with reasonable expectations. Fury Road being so successful seemed like a fluke.

Looking at the bigger picture, I don't see how we continue to get good, original films with the industry still stuck in this old system of Theaters first, then PPV and physical, then the subscription streaming services. It just seems like that pipeline requires movies to do numbers that most films can't handle, so they're not economically viable. Hence everything needing to be a summer blockbuster just to get greenlit.

And as someone with a modest home theater setup, I'm part of the problem. It's too easy to skip the theater and wait to watch the movie at home where I can pause it to go to the bathroom or refill a drink. And save $40 per movie...

Even then Fury Road wasn't a Box office smash and could be considered a bomb by studio standards. It had a budget of $150 million and only made back $379 million. To break even it would have at least need to hit $600 million when you factor in advertising being another $150 million and the theaters taking 50% of ticket sales. This could explain why we didn't get a sequel for 9 years. I'm surprised this even came to theaters.

 

[diffusionx]

The theatres around me are all the typical bigger box kind of theatres that have a ton of snack bar options, and a small arcade. And in plazas or part of a shopping mall where there's other restaurants or shopping to do. I dont know how many old school small movie only kinds of places there still are. Those have got to be long dead by now???

But if modern theatres with all the new stuff still isnt cutting it, what else do they do?

the death of movie theaters is vastly exaggerated, and the first thing that people (especially SJWs) blame whenever one of their chosen movies failed. How soon we forget that a 3 hour movie about nuclear scientists in the desert made $500 million last year and wasn't even the biggest movie.

The problem is the movie, not the concept of the theater. The movies that have come out this year are mostly ass.

 

[Mossybrew]

Let's break it down:

> make new Mad Max movie, no Mad Max
> wait nine years to make it
> make a prequel about a character that had an excellent arc in Fury Road but isn't interesting enough to warrant a whole movie
> cast someone who is a good actress but can't carry a blockbuster movie
> release an incredibly bad first trailer

Pretty much sums it up. I'll catch it on streaming at some point.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

On Fury Road’s opening weekend, the split was 60 percent male to 40 percent, according to sources with access to exit surveys conducted by PostTrak. But Furiosa’s audience was 71 percent male and 29 percent female, a worrisome decline and a startling number for a feature marketed as a female-driven vehicle. And the 18-24 age group, who are the most frequent moviegoers, plummeted from 31 percent for Fury Road to 21 percent for Furiosa.

Observers note that Fury Road aside, the male-fueled Mad Max series has always catered to a somewhat niche audience. The first three films, starring Mel Gibson, grossed less than $70 million combined domestically.

“IP like Mad Max and Ghostbusters is old, and they have the fans they’re going to have,” says one theater chain executive. “If studios can budget to that, they might make some decent money.”

A dude bro kind of movie like a post-apocalyptic MM movie will always skew guys. It's like sports. You can promote women's leagues and players, but sports in general is a guy focused hobby and viewership. There was that article I posted ot long ago that even said for women's pro leagues more guys actually watch it then women. And more women watch pro men's leagues.

If you make a movie like MM star a female lead, chances are pretty good it'll fail. Some guys will be turned off by it as they want to see a meathead kick ass. And women wont care much for it either. They'd rather see the same meathead but for being rugged and good looking.

 

[daffyduck]

The old school aren't quite fully replaced yet. They're still building the modern format.

Right now the media is reporting about the death of drive-ins. It does seem about time, but they've been predicting that since the 90's at least.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

I foresee most theaters closing down, and “Cinema” becomes more of a premiere experience for movies. Like going to a broadway show. Everything will immediately go to VoD, but if you want to see it on the big screen for a limited time, you’ll need to drive who knows how many miles to the closest theater. They need to be good theaters too. Really big screens, 300 - 500 seats, good food, staff that enforces good audience behavior etc. They need to make it a positive and exciting experience.

Right now there’s way too many theaters that don’t justify box office performance for the past few years, and it’s going to get worse. Families and teenagers are huge demographics for theater goers. Right now families would rather wait an extra few weeks for VoD, rather than pay $100+ to take their fat wife and kids to the movies. And then teenagers don’t care about movie theaters anymore. Theater chains and Hollywood need to adapt in major ways to survive the changes that are already here.

Legendary films like Back to the Future, Star Wars ‘77, Jurassic Park, or Lord of the Rings would bomb at the box office if they were made and released today. The Silver Screen era has fallen. Begun the Streaming Wars has.

That may be true in the long run, but right now — as a member of the "target demographic" for most TV and movies — I would love to go see a movie in theaters, but the screens are worse than what I have at home! Theaters need to invest in new technology that would make going to the cinema a distinct and enjoyable experience.

 

[JusticeForAll]

People don't want to see Mad Max without Mad Max.

 

[Alebrije]

Don't worry Deadpool Will save cinema.

At least this year..

 

[nush]

“Cinema” becomes more of a premiere experience for movies. Like going to a broadway show.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I'm surprised this even came to theaters.

Like a lot of media (movies, games, TV shows) the past 5+ years, there's tons of female leads in superhero/dude bro kinds of settings where traditionally it'd be a male star. A lot of them seem to bomb.

I think a lot of companies think if they can promote a female lead, they can amp up sales, since expectation the make audience will always be there to watch. They probably all go back to Apple changing their strategy to be more female friendly compared to traditional male dominated PC ads and think if Apple can market products which men and women can all enjoy, then if they can adjust action movies to have more women, you get the best of both worlds and rake in sales. And also look back at Wonder Woman where it raked in tons of money with Gal Gadot running around being sexy.

 

[Wildebeest]

Niche genre apparently, but how is Fallout doing? Movies are becoming pointless in the world of streaming unless they are part of huge transmedia events, usually involving social media and people's personal brand building on social media. To a limited extent, Fury Road benefited from this, as people wanted to be identified as supporters of the "not your boomer dad's mad max" as opposed to critics.

 

[ÆMNE22A!C]

I want an alcoholic Mel doing crazy shit every EVERY scene. I don't care for this vehicle.

 

[Alebrije]

That may be true in the long run, but right now — as a member of the "target demographic" for most TV and movies — I would love to go see a movie in theaters, but the screens are worse than what I have at home! Theaters need to invest in new technology that would make going to the cinema a distinct and enjoyable experience.

Unless You have a cinema Home with state of the art surround sound it's hard to Believe You have a better screen.

As far as I remember movies on cinema are displayed on 8k. And the theater sound does not compares with basic Home sound systems.

But agree every year Home cinemas approach to the theater experience , and some Even surpases them but You need to invest tons of money. Lets Say is not the mass standard now just a few part of the consumers can afford them because not only involves the equipment but the area, wall sound insulation, lighting, etc.

For most of US cinema is the Best way to.see a movie..

 

[SirKicksalot]

The same studio is making Matrix 5 after Resurrections cratered.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Unless You have a cinema Home with state of the art surround sound it's hard to Believe You have a better screen.

As far as I remember movies on cinema are displayed on 8k. And the theater sound does not compares with basic Home sound systems.

But agree every year Home cinemas approach to the theater experience , and some Even surpases them but You need to invest tons of money. Lets Say is not the mass standard now just a few part of the consumers can afford them because not only involves the equipment but the area, wall sound insulation, lighting, etc.

For most of US cinema is the Best way to.see a movie..

For me, giant thetare audio handily beats any set up at home I have.

But for screen quality, I've always thought movie theatres have terrible screens. The quality is always splotchy, pixelly, grainy etc... like the video feed isnt high enough res to show on a gigantic screen. And colours seem way more washed out then on a home TV (probably has to do with the screen again?)

 

[Nonehxc]

Bombosa.

I have a soft spot for Miller and everything Mad Max since I was a child, and surely it will be a good one, but Mad Max without Mad Max or The Last of the V8 is just Coca-Cola without bubbles.

 

[Sybrix]

But the film is good.......... lol.

It's a really good action film, not as good as Fury Road, but Fury Road is perfection.

I really hope this doesn't mean the end of Millers Mad Max, supposed to be a 3rd entry.

Bombosa.

I have a soft spot for Miller and everything Mad Max since I was a child, and surely it will be a good one, but Mad Max without Mad Max or The Last of the V8 is just Coca-Cola without bubbles.

Fury Road was almost Mad Max without Max. And it's one of the greatest actions films ever made.

That film is about Furiosa getting home.

 

[ManaByte]

Godzilla will save us.

FIFY

 

[Mr Reasonable]

Cinema is on borrowed time.
There's no competing with what's at kid's fingertips today, literally hijacking their brain.

When I was young, between the ages 16 and 26, kids my age were seeing a movie a week. If not every week, then definitely every month. Kids today are not doing that. Not even close.

So how is cinema going to survive? On old folks, 45 and up? What happens when we're dead? Yup, you guessed correctly: that's when cinema officially dies (and it will die)

If that is the case, that cinema starts getting targeted at grumpy old people, it will be heaven.

People being ejected for daring to look at their phone.

Nobody talking above a whisper.

No kids anywhere.

I think we just saved cinema.

 

[Eiknarf]

the death of movie theaters is vastly exaggerated, and the first thing that people (especially SJWs) blame whenever one of their chosen movies failed. How soon we forget that a 3 hour movie about nuclear scientists in the desert made $500 million last year and wasn't even the biggest movie.

The problem is the movie, not the concept of the theater. The movies that have come out this year are mostly ass.

Teens didn't go to see that!!!
A) They have no money
B) They DO NOT care about going to the cinema!!!

People 40 and up are the reason Oppenheimer made money!!!
And like I wrote above, people 40 and over are the last to keep cinema (in this current form) alive. When that age group is dead, cinema in today's form will be dead, too. It will be changed to a niche, premiere market thing, like going to a Broadway show.

 

[diffusionx]

Teens didn't go to see that!!!
A) They have no money
B) They DO NOT care about going to the cinema!!!

People 40 and up are the reason Oppenheimer made money!!!
And like I wrote above, people 40 and over are the last to keep cinema (in this current form) alive. When that age group is dead, cinema in today's form will be dead, too. It will be changed to a niche market thing, like going to a play

I am pretty sure that Barbie hit that younger demographic pretty hard. But even accepting that your premise is correct, people aged 40 are not dying anytime soon. Can you accurately predict what else will be dead in 30 years?

 

[JimmyRustler]

Cinema is on borrowed time.
There's no competing with what's at kid's fingertips today, literally hijacking their brain.

When I was young, between the ages 16 and 26, kids my age were seeing a movie a week. If not every week, then definitely every month. Kids today are not doing that. Not even close.

So how is cinema going to survive? On old folks, 45 and up? What happens when we're dead? Yup, you guessed correctly: that's when cinema officially dies (and it will die)

Well said. Been saying this since Covid. Cinema is dying. There is just too much to watch at home and often in even better IQ thanks to OLED.

Will be interesting to see how the movie industry will tackle this in the coming decade or so. I assume piracy prevention will get very big again as companies will bank more and more on streaming services but (given the state of those) consumers will pirate more and more.

 

[Eiknarf]

I am pretty sure that Barbie hit that younger demographic pretty hard. But even accepting that your premise is correct, people aged 40 are not dying anytime soon. Can you accurately predict what else will be dead in 30 years?

Parents took their kids to see Barbie. That doubles the ticket sales.
Eleven-year-olds didnt drive themselves.

And its not a prediction to know that when the literal movie going audience is dead, that cinema will be changed forever.

Teens of the 70s and 80s learned that "movies are fun". So teens of the 70s and 80s took that, grew up with it near and dear to their hearts, and appreciate it in their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s (which is today).
What kids today are learning is definitely not that. They're learning that their phones and TikTok and Streaming and YouTube and IG and Social media are fun.

In response to the bolded part, I did NOT SAY TODAY.
I'll repeat for the third time:
"When todays 40 year olds are dead" (and older)

Using math, that means cinema has approximately 40 years of normal life left (if 80-year-olds are still RUNNING TO THE THEATER in the year 2064)

 

[TheUsual]

We should let Matt Stone and Trey Parker do a a Mad Maxx flick. They did a hilarious enough bit on South Park long ago

 

[March Climber]

Mad Max fandom will join the Blade Runner fandom as we watch the I.P. fade into obscurity due to an underperforming sequel. And both parties will continue to make up a multitude of reasons as to why they bombed, but at least Blade Runner has the benefit of not being used as a prop in a culture war.

Who knows, maybe the Mad Max I.P. will get an anime or something like BR did

 

[TransTrender]

We should let Matt Stone and Trey Parker do a a Mad Maxx flick. They did a hilarious enough bit on South Park long ago

 

[diffusionx]

Parents took their kids to see Barbie. That doubles the ticket sales.
Eleven-year-olds didnt drive themselves.

And its not a prediction to know that when the literal movie going audience is dead, that cinema will be changed forever.

Teens of the 70s and 80s learned that "movies are fun". So teens of the 70s and 80s took that, grew up with it near and dear to their hearts, and appreciate it in their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s (which is today).
What kids today are learning is definitely not that. They're learning that their phones and TikTok and Streaming and YouTube and IG and Social media are fun.

In response to the bolded part, I did NOT SAY TODAY.
I'll repeat for the third time:
"When todays 40 year olds are dead" (and older)

Using math, that means cinema has approximately 40 years of normal life left (if 40 year old still RUN TO THE THEATER in their 80s in the year 2064)

Well, first of all, I don't really agree, second of all, what the theater industry will do over the next 3 decades is totally irrelevant to how a movie is doing today. The 2nd best selling movie of last year was Super Mario which likely skewed younger, action movies like Fast X and Spiderman did really well, etc.

The core problem is the movies so far this year have been mostly junk and unappealing and marketed badly.

 

[Trilobit]

Like a lot of media (movies, games, TV shows) the past 5+ years, there's tons of female leads in superhero/dude bro kinds of settings where traditionally it'd be a male star. A lot of them seem to bomb.

I think a lot of companies think if they can promote a female lead, they can amp up sales, since expectation the make audience will always be there to watch. They probably all go back to Apple changing their strategy to be more female friendly compared to traditional male dominated PC ads and think if Apple can market products which men and women can all enjoy, then if they can adjust action movies to have more women, you get the best of both worlds and rake in sales. And also look back at Wonder Woman where it raked in tons of money with Gal Gadot running around being sexy.

I heard this theory a while back. Young men flock to movies like Transformers 1 that clearly has them as a target group. They put in a gorgeous girl to sweeten the deal. Girlfriends like to follow with their guys to watch whatever. So this brings in the big bucks.

Now what we get instead is stuff like Rey being the lead in a Star Wars trilogy where she beats all guys easily and men are slapped for being men. Or a female lead in Bumblebee(which I liked, but was lowest grossing Transformers movie).

I don't really understand why production companies have abandoned the golden formula to instead chase the female groups with movies that typically aren't very popular with them. It's like trying to chase after two rabbits at the same time.

 

[willothedog]

People don't want to see Mad Max without Mad Max.

Max is in this film.

 

[Eiknarf]

I heard this theory a while back. Young men flock to movies like Transformers 1 that clearly has them as a target group. They put in a gorgeous girl to sweeten the deal. Girlfriends like to follow with their guys to watch whatever. So this brings in the big bucks.

Now what we get instead is stuff like Rey being the lead in a Star Wars trilogy where she beats all guys easily and men are slapped for being men. Or a female lead in Bumblebee(which I liked, but was lowest grossing Transformers movie).

I don't really understand why production companies have abandoned the golden formula to instead chase the female groups with movies that typically aren't very popular with them. It's like trying to chase after two rabbits at the same time.

This is also spot-on!

Guess who likes manly men in heroic roles?
Guys do!
Guess who also likes manly men in heroic roles?
Women do!

So I don't know how we did a 180* in both cinema and games to where it's pretty much all female heroic roles now?

I mean, it's cool to have both: some male heroic leads and some female heroic leads. But to punish men for the patriarchy of the past is childish. The feminist crowd seems to be saying, "Lets give them a taste of their own medicine and only have female leads for now on!". That rings immature to me. It reminds me of childs-play: "See, now you men know how it feels!"
Fuck you! We don't want anyone to feel this. We want to achieve a level playing field for all. But this overcorrection is not the answer.

 

[diffusionx]

I heard this theory a while back. Young men flock to movies like Transformers 1 that clearly has them as a target group. They put in a gorgeous girl to sweeten the deal. Girlfriends like to follow with their guys to watch whatever. So this brings in the big bucks.

Now what we get instead is stuff like Rey being the lead in a Star Wars trilogy where she beats all guys easily and men are slapped for being men. Or a female lead in Bumblebee(which I liked, but was lowest grossing Transformers movie).

I don't really understand why production companies have abandoned the golden formula to instead chase the female groups with movies that typically aren't very popular with them. It's like trying to chase after two rabbits at the same time.

Not to get political, but I don't even think it is about chasing demographics. The Disney execs kind of said the quiet part loud a few years ago, or when Blizzard proudly unveiled their stunning and brave character scoring system last year. They do this because they believe they have a mission and responsibility to do it. You put this woman in charge of Star Wars and she thinks she has a mission to make it a story about girl power. Star Wars is a smoking rubble right now, but she is still in charge, and she is still doing it.

 

[bender]

FIFY

As much as I liked the last Godzilla movie, my post didn't need fixing. Walk the plank monkey pirate.