The Big Picture

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
topped iTunes VOD and Fandango at Home charts, showing audience interest in the prequel despite box office struggles.
The film’s positive reviews contributed to its success on VOD platforms.
George Miller plans a black-and-white release of
Furiosa
and has teased another potential film exploring Max’s journey before
Fury Road
.

Anya Taylor-Joy rode home on VOD last week with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and the results thus far are all shiny and chrome. The latest adventure in George Miller’s cinematic wasteland topped the iTunes VOD chart for July 1 and similarly lorded over the competition on the Fandango at Home chart for June 24 through 30. It’s a slight bit of redemption for the critically acclaimed blockbuster actioner after it fell surprisingly flat at the box office with only $171.3 million globally against an estimated $168 million budget. Previously, the top spot on both charts had been held by John Krasinski’s family comedy IF.

iTunes and Fandango both utilize different measures for their respective charts, meaning Furiosa dominated both in terms of the number of transactions and total revenue. Audiences are clearly still interested in seeing how Imperator Furiosa became the powerful leader seen in Mad Max: Fury Road, even if many didn’t show up when the film graced theaters in late May. It seemingly marks the continuation of a trend that has troubled the industry of late, as viewers have shown they’re more than willing to wait for the relatively quick turnaround of digital releases rather than go out to see movies on the biggest screen possible with some exceptions. David Leitch’s The Fall Guy similarly struggled at the box office with a starry duo of Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt failing to draw crowds until its VOD release.

Furiosa faced a slight uphill battle as an R-rated prequel to a film that, despite being hailed as one of the greatest action films of all time, was still only a moderate box-office success at $380.4 million, but its failure was still a shock given the wind at its back. For one, the new film featured plenty of star power between Taylor-Joy as Furiosa and Chris Hemsworth as the villain Dementus alongside a strong supporting group featuring the returning Nathan Jones, Angus Sampson, and John Howard as well as Lachy Hulme as a young Immortan Joe and Tom Burke as Praetorian Jack among others. Reviews have also been wildly positive, including a certified fresh 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7/10 review from Collider’s Therese Lacson.

What Is ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ About?

Taking place years before Max Rockatansky ever set foot on Fury Road, Miller’s latest follows a young Furiosa throughout her life as she’s stolen from the Green Place of Many Mothers and left in the hands of Dementus’s biker horde. Across a decade, she’s whisked through the wasteland in a chaotic conflict between the horde and Immortan Joe’s Citadel, eventually rising to the rank of Imperator after craftily working her way up the ranks of Joe’s army. Her ultimate goal is to survive and find her way back home, though that plan is put on hold as she seeks revenge against Dementus. Miller co-wrote Furiosa with Nico Lathouris.

Even though the film struggled at the box office, this likely won’t be the end for Mad Max. Miller has plans for a black-and-white release of the prequel, similar to that of Fury Road, which he calls “Tinted Black and Chrome.” There’s no word on when that could be available for audiences, but the director has also teased another potential film that would follow Max in the run-up to Fury Road, showing how he came face-to-face with Immortan Joe. Hope for that film, or a proper Fury Road sequel, is still up in the air though, as Tom Hardy expressed that a return to the wasteland isn’t likely.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is available now on VOD platforms, including Prime Video.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga The origin story of renegade warrior Furiosa before her encounter and team-up with Mad Max.Release Date May 24, 2024 Director George Miller Runtime 148 minutes

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