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‘Furiosa,’ ‘Garfield’ Lead Slowest Memorial Day Box Office in Decades

Cast member Anya Taylor-Joy attends the UK premiere of "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" in London, Britain, May 17, 2024. (Reuters)
Cast member Anya Taylor-Joy attends the UK premiere of "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" in London, Britain, May 17, 2024. (Reuters)
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‘Furiosa,’ ‘Garfield’ Lead Slowest Memorial Day Box Office in Decades

Cast member Anya Taylor-Joy attends the UK premiere of "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" in London, Britain, May 17, 2024. (Reuters)
Cast member Anya Taylor-Joy attends the UK premiere of "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" in London, Britain, May 17, 2024. (Reuters)

Movie theaters are looking more and more like a wasteland this summer. Neither “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” nor “The Garfield Movie” could save Memorial Day weekend, which is cruising towards a two-decade low.

“Furiosa,” the Mad Max prequel starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, claimed the first place spot for the Friday-Saturday-Sunday weekend with $25.6 million, according to studio estimates on Sunday. Warner Bros. is waiting until Monday to release its four-day estimates.

“The Garfield Movie,” animated and family-friendly, was the other big new offering this weekend from Sony’s Columbia Pictures and Alcon Entertainment. It is claiming No. 1 for the four-day holiday weekend with an estimated $31.9 million in ticket sales through Memorial Day. Sony estimates its three-day earnings to be $24.8 million.

Aside from Memorial Day in 2020 when theaters were closed due to COVID-19, these are the lowest earning No. 1 movies in 29 years, since “Casper” earned $22.5 million (not adjusted for inflation) in its first four days in 1995. Big earners are more typical for the holiday weekend, which has had ten movies crack $100 million, led by “Top Gun: Maverick’s” record-setting $160 million launch in 2022.

Last year, the live-action “The Little Mermaid” joined the group with a $118 million debut. Audiences even turned out in greater numbers over the pandemic-addled weekend in 2021 for “A Quiet Place Part II,” which made over $57 million.

“Furiosa” was never expected to join the $100 million opener club, which Warner Bros. released on 3,804 screens in the US and Canada. But it was supposed to have a slightly stronger showing in the $40 million range over its first four days. That would have been more in line with its predecessor, “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which opened to $45.4 million in May 2015. “Fury Road,” starring Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, went on to gross nearly $380 million worldwide.

This new origin story in which Taylor-Joy plays a younger version of Theron’s character had a lot of things going for it, too, including strong reviews out of the just-wrapped Cannes Film Festival (it has an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes) and a splashy international press tour with many buzzy premiere looks from Taylor-Joy. With a reported $168 million production budget, not accounting for marketing and promotion, “Furiosa” has a long road to profitability.

“The Garfield Movie,” meanwhile, was more modestly budgeted, at a reported $60 million. Chris Pratt voices the lasagna-loving, Monday-hating orange cat in the movie that got scathing reviews from critics (it has a 37% on Rotten Tomatoes). Audiences meanwhile gave both “Furiosa” and “The Garfield Movie” a B+ CinemaScore and 4.5 stars out of 5 on PostTrak.

In its second weekend, John Krasinski’s “IF” fell 53%, adding $16 million through Sunday and $20.7 million through Monday, bringing its domestic total to $63.3 million. Worldwide, it has surpassed $100 million. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” now in its third weekend, added $13.4 million through Sunday, bringing its global total to $294.8 million, making it the fourth-highest grossing film of the year.

Earlier this week, the industry trade The Hollywood Reporter asked “what happened to the $100 million opener?” Notably, 2023 has had none yet. The biggest of the year was “Dune: Part Two,” which opened to $82.5 million and went on to earn over $711 million worldwide.

The lack of a recent runaway hit just puts more pressure on the upcoming films to make up the slack. Still on the way are a slew of potential blockbusters like Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Day One” (June 27), Universal’s “Despicable Me 4” (July 3) and “Twisters” (July 19) and two heavy-hitters from Disney: “Inside Out 2” (June 14) and “Deadpool & Wolverine” (July 26).

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‘Sinners’ Surges Past ‘Minecraft’ to Lead Box Office

Director Ryan Coogler, left, and Michael B. Jordan pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "Sinners" on Monday, April 14, 2025, in London. (AP)
Director Ryan Coogler, left, and Michael B. Jordan pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "Sinners" on Monday, April 14, 2025, in London. (AP)
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‘Sinners’ Surges Past ‘Minecraft’ to Lead Box Office

Director Ryan Coogler, left, and Michael B. Jordan pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "Sinners" on Monday, April 14, 2025, in London. (AP)
Director Ryan Coogler, left, and Michael B. Jordan pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film "Sinners" on Monday, April 14, 2025, in London. (AP)

Brand names, not filmmakers or stars, are said to rule the box office these days. But Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” led by twin Michael B. Jordans, proved a bloody exception to modern movie rules, launching with $45.6 million in ticket sales in US and Canadian theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.

“Sinners,” a Warner Bros. release that cost about $90 million to produce, was a bold gamble on originality — albeit with genre elements — and one of the most bankable American directors in Coogler. The “Creed” and “Black Panther” director wrote and produced “Sinners,” a 1932-set vampire movie about bootlegging brothers (both played by Jordan) who open a juke joint in their Mississippi hometown.

“A Minecraft Movie,” the year’s biggest Hollywood hit, followed close behind in second, collecting $41.3 million in its third week of release. That gave Warner Bros., after a handful of disappointments, an enviable one-two punch at the box office with one original, director-driven movie and one IP-based property.

“A Minecraft Movie,” which Warner Bros. co-produced with Legendary Pictures, has amassed $720.8 million worldwide in three weeks of release.

Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca, co-chairs of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, celebrated the two films’ resonance with moviegoers. The studio accounted for a remarkable 64% of the domestic box office for the Easter weekend.

“Movies have the power to transport us to worlds only seen on the big screen, and Warner Bros. Pictures remains committed to bringing singular in-theater experiences to audiences looking for bold movies, both original and those based on beloved existing properties,” Abdy and De Luca said in a statement Sunday.

But all eyes were on the performance on “Sinners,” which Warner Bros. went to extreme lengths to secure. Abdy and De Luca agreed to give Coogler not just a cut of gross ticket sales but ownership of the film after 25 years — a virtually unheard of concession.

But Coogler and Jordan, whose collaborations stretch back to “Fruitvale Station,” make up one of the industry’s most potent director-actor duos. Reviews (98% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes) were stellar for “Sinners” and audiences, too, were enthralled by its supernatural twists. The film earned an “A” CinemaScore from moviegoers.

Overseas, “Sinners” faced a more uphill battle. It collected $15.4 million in 71 international markets. Domestically, “Sinners” attracted a diverse audience: 38% Black, 35% white, 18% Hispanic and 5% Asian.

Before “Sinners,” dual roles had been rough business for Warner Bros. The studio saw flops in both “The Alto Knights” (a period gangster film featuring a doubled Robert De Niro) and “Mickey 17” (a sci-fi movie with two Robert Pattinsons).

But the strong opening for “Sinners,” which should be sustained in the coming weeks given the strong word of mouth, cements Coogler’s place as one of a handful of filmmakers whose name draws big audiences. Another would be Jordan Peele, whose “Nope” (2022) debuted similarly with $44.3 million.

Angel Studios’ “The King of Kings,” an animated tale of Jesus’ life aimed at Christian audiences, capitalized on the Easter weekend, grossing $17.2 million in its second week of release. That was nearly equal to its opening weekend ($19.1 million), and brought “The King of Kings” to a domestic total of $45.3 million.

Bleecker Street’s “The Wedding Banquet,” Andrew Ahn’s reimagining of Ang Lee’s 1993 comedy of errors, opened on 1,142 North American screens with $922,906 in ticket sales. “The Wedding Banquet,” a hit at the Sundance Film Festival, stars Lily Gladstone, Bowen Yang, Kelly Marie Tran and newcomer Han Gi-chan.