So, that Furiosa movie which I was happy to criticise sight unseen (honestly, the chances of my liking it after I panned Fury Road were so infinitesimally small they can be ignored) has more-or-less already been declared a box office failure because of its opening weekend take.
Really, we shouldn't be surprised. There are lots of signs that the public is, generally, pretty much over sequels: see the increasingly bad take of Marvel movies, the worse than expected performance of the last Mission Impossible despite good reviews, and the really bad performance of the last Indiana Jones (although many poor reviews - based more on an unfair allegation that it was too "woke" - did likely affect it.) Yet the high brow Oppenheimer and the lightweight, but at least novel, movie Barbie did spectacularly well.
What's more, as at least one "bro" reviewer (The Critical Drinker - who didn't mind Furiosa and loved Fury Road) remembered to note: the fans seem to think that Fury Road was a much bigger commercial success than it really was. As someone in Forbes writes:
At baseline, Mad Max: Fury Road is not some extremely massive blockbuster superhit. The film earned $380 million worldwide on a $150 million budget and even more in marketing. Solid, but nothing too insane.
People also seem to forget how long ago Fury Road came out - 2015! I do agree with most people that it is doesn't feel like it was 9 years ago, but maybe the Covid years have warped our sense of time. I guess the Star Wars prequels show that you can still make money from a long gap in the series, but they are probably the exception more than the rule.
Anyhoo - if I were in control of Hollywood at the moment, I would be throwing money at anything that is novel in both story and vision, not based on comics, and is good for charismatic new actors under 30. (There seems to be a significant gap in the acting market in that age range.)
And yeah, the "remake old stuff but with a powerful female lead instead of a male" as a concept has finished its run, too.
1 comment:
I didn't like Oppenheimer or Barbie and I don't know why Oppenheimer is considered highbrow. No intellectual content, not historically accurate, no science. Mission impossible. Initially enjoyable but so tired now and limiting Cruise's acting range.
Great to see Furiosa bombed. Hemsworth is labouring under the delusion he is an actor.
Want something new? Go non-English and non-West.
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