Neither a fat cat nor a ravening pack of post-apocalyptic Australian warlords could save US cinemas from their worst performance over the Memorial Day weekend in nearly three decades. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga review – Anya Taylor-Joy is tremendous as chase resumes Read more George Miller’s origins tale Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga just pipped pizza-loving feline Garfield to the top spot, taking $32m (£25m) over the four days, compared with Garfield’s $31.1m (£24m).

Ghostly animation Casper took $22m (£17m) over the same period in 1995, but ever since then receipts have been up – excluding in 2020, when cinemas were entirely closed due to Covid. The softness of both new movies’ opening weekend has come as a shock to the beleaguered industry, which is still reeling from the underperformance of films such as The Fall Guy earlier in the year. Comscore estimates that ticket sales remain 22% behind 2023 and 41% behind pre-pandemic’s 2019.

This time last year, Disney’s The Little Mermaid remake had helped lift takings considerably – which are nearly 36% lower this year – with $118m (£92.4m), ahead of the huge boon Barbenheimer brought a month or so later. Even in 2021, takings were considerably more healthy, with A Quiet Place Part II scoring $57.

1m (£44.7m) over Memorial Day weekend. View image in fullscreen The Garfield Movie took $31.

1m, already making back half of its budget in the US alone. Photograph: Columbia Pictures/Sony/AP Blunt, stunts and Gosling: how di.