Weekend Box Office Shocker: Furiosa beaten by Garfield and IF

The box office outlook for George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga looks pretty bleak. In my box office predictions, I anticipated the film being beaten by The Garfield Movie in its second weekend, but I didn’t think John Krasinski’s IF, in week 3, would manage to overtake it at the box office. But, according to early box office numbers released by Comscore, that’s exactly what happened. 

According to their stats, The Garfield Movie made $14 million this weekend, compared to IF, which made $10.8 million, edging out Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga by a very thin margin, with Miller’s film earning $10.75. Granted, that’s a very close race, so it’s possible that when the final figures come out later today, Miller’s movie might eke out a second-place finish. Yet, with a 59% decline in its second weekend, hopes that the movie might turn into a word-of-mouth sleeper, like Mad Max: Fury Road did, seem truly dashed. That movie never fell above 48% until later in its run. With a domestic total of just $49.6 million, it seems unlikely the movie will even make $80 million domestically, which is just over half what its predecessor made. 

Ouch.

While Miller’s film is struggling to find an audience before its inevitable VOD release (which will likely be sooner rather than later), The Garfield Movie showed hefty staying power, with only a 42% decline in week 2. If family audiences continue to prop the movie up, a domestic total in the $100 million range isn’t out of the question. 

Of all the movies here, the weekend’s bragging points have to go to John Krasinski, whose film IF overcame a dismal first weekend and bad reviews to become a word-of-mouth hit. It fell only 33% this week, and with an $80 million total, it will easily end its domestic run north of $110 million. Quite the coup for a movie everyone was calling a flop a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile, Disney’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes continued to do well, with an $8.8 million weekend and a $139 million domestic total. It will likely outgross the last movie in the franchise, War for the Planet of the Apes. The Fall Guy, despite being launched on VOD, also showed a bit of staying power, with a $4.2 million weekend. Its run has been similar to that of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, where word of mouth has been good. With an $80 million total so far, is there a chance it could crack $100 million domestically?

The first film in Renny Harlin’s The Strangers Trilogy also continued to do well, with $3.6 million and a total that’s just shy of $30 million. Clearly, horror fans are digging his reboot of the franchise, and with a little less competition in theaters, his two sequels even have a chance at outgrossing the first movie.

Crunchyroll and Sony’s Haikyu! The Dumpster Battle also did well this weekend, with a $3.5 million finish, proving once again that the Anime audience loves to see these movies on the big screen. Shudder, and IFC also had another word-of-mouth hit, with In a Violent Nature making $2.1 million, which puts it below Late Night With The Devil but is still a huge win for a movie set for a streaming release within a few weeks. 

Sadly, the well-reviewed dramedy Ezra, despite its stellar cast, crashed and burned at the box office this weekend, with a $1.18 million total and a per-theater average of only $897. OUCH. Meanwhile, Angel Studios’ Sight wasn’t able to follow in the footsteps of their smash hit Sound of Freedom, with the movie losing 61% of its audience (rare for a Christian film) to finish at just over $1 million dollars.

Overall, this was a pretty quiet weekend at the box office, although Bad Boys: Ride Or Die should give it a hefty dose of adrenaline next weekend. Will you be going to see it? And what do you make of Furiosa’s box office performance? Let us know in the comments.