It was supposed to be a hit. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga boasted Aussie Hollywood heart-throb Chris Hemsworth and rising star Anya Taylor-Joy in a beloved franchise, effusive critical praise including a six-minute standing ovation at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in France and a worldwide marketing campaign propelled by entertainment giant Warner Bros. But the action-packed extravaganza flopped, pulling in just $32m across the US four-day Memorial Day weekend, below a projected $40m haul, for a $59m worldwide take, according to Box Office Mojo.
The film’s mammoth $170m budget means it is now in a fight to break even. Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion. Furiosa is the latest disappointment in a string of dramatic failures to hit the 2024 box office and the effects are being felt everywhere, from Los Angeles to forlorn cinema operators across regional Australia.
For Stephen Goddard, the manager of a three-screen cinema in the coal mining town of Emerald in Central Queensland, the flops could spell the end of movie-going in western Queensland. “Furiosa is actually a really good movie, but it won’t matter,” he told NewsWire. “We will probably shut down, quite truthfully, and I know that Mount Isa is in the same boat.
I have spoken to them and they are looking at it.” “That will just about mean, you don’t have a cinema alive in the west at all. “I can pretty confidently say we won’t get to December.
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