عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Entertainment

‘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)
TT
TT

‘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).

Most Viewed

 
 
Entertainment

Meghann Fahy and Eve Hewson's 'Overnight Success' is More than a Decade in the Making

Meghann Fahy, left, and Eve Hewson pose for a portrait to promote "The Perfect Couple" on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Meghann Fahy, left, and Eve Hewson pose for a portrait to promote "The Perfect Couple" on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
TT
TT

Meghann Fahy and Eve Hewson's 'Overnight Success' is More than a Decade in the Making

Meghann Fahy, left, and Eve Hewson pose for a portrait to promote "The Perfect Couple" on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Meghann Fahy, left, and Eve Hewson pose for a portrait to promote "The Perfect Couple" on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Meghann Fahy and Eve Hewson, two of the stars of Netflix's whodunit “The Perfect Couple,” have news for you if you want to call them breakouts: They've been working in this business for more than a decade.
Fahy made her TV debut in 2009 in an episode of “Gossip Girl.” Hewson's first big film role was in 2011's “This Must Be the Place.” They do concede, however, that it's recent TV roles — “The White Lotus” for Fahy and “Bad Sisters” for Hewson — that have led to new frontiers of opportunity, The Associated Press said.
Susanne Bier, who directed “The Perfect Couple,” says both Fahy and Hewson are “going to be big stars.”
“They certainly have proper, profound star quality, Both of them in very different ways,” Bier says. “Both are incredibly creative, incredibly smart, and also have a impressive insight as to who they are. You can be a great actor or actress and not necessarily really know who you are yourself. And they do.”
Hewson, 33, whose dad is U2 front man Bono, may have grown up in a famous family but she's now in demand in her own right. She will next be seen in a second season of “Bad Sisters, ” out in November. She's in Noah Baumbach's next film, alongside Adam Sandler, George Clooney and Riley Keough. She's also been cast in Steven Spielberg's next production and is set to star opposite Murray Bartlett in a racing series for Hulu.
Fahy, 34, is in production on a limited series with Julianne Moore and Milly Alcock called “Sirens,” written by Molly Smith Metzler (“Maid”) for Netflix. She also has two films in the can with Josh O'Connor (“The Crown,” “Challengers”) and Brandon Sklenar (“It Ends With Us”).
The two actors spoke candidly with The Associated Press about this phase of their careers. This interview has been condensed for clarity and brevity.
AP: You've both had popular, zeitgeisty TV shows in recent years. TV fans are particularly passionate. Have you experienced any interesting interactions with fans? HEWSON: It’s actually really fun to experience because even when we were in Cape Cod shooting “The Perfect Couple,” I would go to the local shop to get my groceries and little old ladies would follow me down the aisle and be like, “Excuse me. Are you that girl from that ‘Sisters’ show?” Who knew that they were watching it? It doesn’t change my life, so it doesn’t bother me, but when someone comes up to me and says that they love the show, especially when it’s someone unexpected, I’m like, “Oh, cool.”
FAHY: It’s not happening so much to me that it feels like a huge imposition or anything. I feel like I’ve been really lucky. A lot of the people that I’ve met who have been a fan of “The White Lotus,” or whatever, they’re really sweet people. And, I think, part of why we do this is because we want to tell stories that people can connect to and play out scenarios for themselves. So I think it’s always really nice.
AP: What's it like to now be a part of conversations about whom to watch? FAHY: Part of it feels really nice because you work really, really, really hard for a really long time — maybe that’s not how it happens for a lot of people — but I feel like we’ve both been doing this for a minute. So, of course, it feels really good. but I try not to like dwell on any of it. I try to acknowledge it and be like, “Oh, that’s so nice.” And then just kind of keep going.
HEWSON: You hear so many stories of people who were like, “I walked into my first audition and I just became a star.” Or, there’s this element of being an actor where people don’t want to tell you how hard they work. They want it to look like it’s really easy. But we've been doing this for a long time. People just don’t really tell those stories. It's usually about the one that was found on the street.
FAHY: Yeah. You took 15 years to become an overnight success.
AP: Do you notice you're now treated differently by people in the industry? FAHY: Yeah, but I always think that nobody ever knows who I am. It’s always very embarrassing. I embarrass myself in those moments. I don’t always feel like I fit in those rooms.
HEWSON: What’s nice is, I’ve spent so long going into a room and people just being like, “OK,” and act like they’re just not getting it. I know at least like I have work that people understand, what I’m doing a little bit more so they get me as an actor.
FAHY: It’s like a different level of respect.