“The Garfield Movie” and “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” were in a close race for the top spot at the box office over the Memorial Day weekend, both grossing around $25 million domestically by Sunday morning. Despite projections of $40 million to $50 million for “Furiosa” and $30 million to $35 million for “Garfield,” both films are expected to fall short and have the worst Memorial Day weekend openings in almost 30 years.
This disappointing opening weekend performance is a stark contrast to previous successful summer movie openings, such as “Mad Max: Fury Road” in 2015, which grossed $45.4 million. “The Garfield Movie” is on track to be the highest-grossing Garfield opening ever, surpassing the $21.7 million opening of “Garfield: The Movie” in 2004. However, Deadline predicts that “The Garfield Movie” may unexpectedly outperform “Furiosa” due to potential factors like limited appeal across demographics.
The underperformance of “Furiosa” adds to a string of box office disappointments in the summer movie season, including “IF” and “The Fall Guy,” which failed to meet their projected opening numbers. Despite this, there are still promising releases on the horizon, such as Disney’s animated “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which are expected to help the box office bounce back. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” had a successful opening earlier this month, grossing $58.5 million.
Critics have given “Furiosa” a high score of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, while “The Garfield Movie” only has a 37% critics rating. Much of the press surrounding “Furiosa” has focused on star Anya Taylor-Joy’s experience filming the movie, including her advocacy for her character’s expression of anger. Taylor-Joy revealed that she only has 30 lines of dialogue in the entire film and fought with director George Miller to give her character the opportunity to voice her anger. Taylor-Joy described feeling isolated during the filming process, stating, “I’ve never been more alone than making that movie.”
Despite the initial disappointing performance of “The Garfield Movie” and “Furiosa,” the summer movie season still holds promise for box office success with upcoming releases. Disney’s “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” are expected to be major hits, and recent successful openings like “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” demonstrate that there is still anticipation and interest in summer blockbusters. While these two films may not have met their lofty projections, there is still hope for a rebound in the box office in the weeks to come.
