Box office: ‘Furiosa’ barely wins weekend in a tight Memorial Day race against ‘Garfield’

Memorial Day is usually one of the biggest and best weekends at the box office, but the warped year that is 2024 at the box office continued with neither of the new wide releases blowing up. Read on for the weekend box office report.

Going into the weekend, George Miller‘s prequel, “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” had scored impressive reviews after its Cannes Film Festival debut with 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Warner Bros. had the film’s stars, Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, just about everywhere promoting the movie. It ended up making $3.5 million from Thursday previews beginning at 3pm, which was less than the $3.7 previews for “Mad Max: Fury Road” back in 2015. It ended up making $10.2 million on Friday, including those previews, which was not a good sign it might reach the $40 million plus projected in advance. Instead, it ended up with $26.3 million over the three-day weekend and an estimated $32 million including Monday.

Sony’s “The Garfield Movie,” featuring the voices of Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddington, Ving Rhames, and more, was expected to have to settle for second place, and despite less-than-great reviews, it opened with $8.4 million on Friday, including $1.9 million in Thursday previews beginning at 2pm. Despite having the benefits of getting a bump over the weekend from family audiences, it still ended up behind “Furiosa” with $24 million for the three-day weekend and with a four-day projection of $31.1 million.

SEE Grab the popcorn and sound off in our movie forums

As far as the CinemaScore rankings provided by audiences for those two movies, they both received “B+” ratings, which isn’t great but also not terrible.

The worst Memorial Day opener ever is still 1995’s “Casper,” which only opened with $22.1 million over the three-day portion of the holiday, but this was one of the poorer Memorial Day showings, going back to 2015 when Disney’s “Tomorrowland” opened with $33 million over the three-day weekend with a “Poltergeist” remake taking fourth place with $22.6 million. That weekend also had “Pitch Perfect 2” making $30.8 million, and ironically, “Fury Road” took third place with $24.6 million that weekend, even though that was in its second weekend. Even “A Quiet Place Part II” opened with $47.5 million in 2021, just a few months after movie theaters reopened across the country.

Speaking of “A Quiet Place,” John Krasinski‘s family film “IF” dropped to third place with $16.1 million, down 52% from its opening weekend, but it grossed $21 million over the four-day weekend for a domestic total of $63.6 million.

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” took fourth place with $13.4 million, down 45% for the three-day weekend with $17.1 million including Monday. It has grossed $126.6 million so far, domestically, and this weekend, “Apes” added another $20.6 million overseas to bring its global total to $294.8 million.

Even though the Universal action-comedy “The Fall Guy,” starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, hit digital platforms on Friday, it still held up well, taking fifth place with $5.9 million, down just 9% from last weekend, with $7.6 million including Monday. So far, it has grossed $73.9 million domestically. It had made another  $71.6 million overseas with $143.8 million globally through Sunday.

SEE Box office hits: Every movie that made more than $100 million

Lionsgate’s horror reboot “The Strangers Chapter 1” dropped to sixth place with $5.6 million, down 53% from its opening weekend, but with $6.9 million, including Monday, it has grossed $22.7 million so far.

The faith-based biopic “Sight” from Angel Studios opened in seventh place with $2.8 million over the three-day weekend and an estimated $3.6 million including the Monday holiday.

Zendaya‘s “Challengers” took eighth place with $1.4 million over the three-day weekend and $1.7 million including Monday, bringing its total to

Neon expanded Pamela Adlon‘s pregnancy comedy “Babes,” starring Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau, into 590 theaters, where it made $1.1 million over the three-day weekend and $1.2 million including Monday

Bearing in mind that this weekend’s box office prediction game only covers the three-day portion of the weekend, the majority of players still had “Furiosa” coming out ahead of “Garfield.” Only 70 players had the #1 movie making less than $50 million, and fewer than that had “The Fall Guy” holding onto fifth place, so we’ll have to see if anyone ends up going six-for-six.

13 players received perfect scores in the May 17 game, but “RichRo” scored the most points with 49,170.

On Friday, a lot of smaller odds and ends will be released but nothing massively nationwide, as most of the larger studios are taking the weekend off. Check back on Wednesday for the rundown of what to expect.

SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions