Anya Taylor-Joy rode home on VOD last week with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and the results thus far are all shiny and chrome. The latest adventure in George Miller’s cinematic wasteland topped the iTunes VOD chart for July 1 and similarly lorded over the competition on the Fandango at Home chart for June 24 through 30. It’s a slight bit of redemption for the critically acclaimed blockbuster actioner after it fell surprisingly flat at the box office with only $171.3 million globally against an estimated $168 million budget. Previously, the top spot on both charts had been held by John Krasinski’s family comedy IF.
iTunes and Fandango both utilize different measures for their respective charts, meaning Furiosa dominated both in terms of the number of transactions and total revenue. Audiences are clearly still interested in seeing how Imperator Furiosa became the powerful leader seen in Mad Max: Fury Road, even if many didn’t show up when the film graced theaters in late May. It seemingly marks the continuation of a trend that has troubled the industry of late, as viewers have shown they’re more than willing to wait for the relatively quick turnaround of digital releases rather than go out to see movies on the biggest screen possible with some exceptions. David Leitch’s The Fall Guy similarly struggled at the box office with a starry duo of Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt failing to draw crowds until its VOD release.
It was a good solid instalment. Maybe not as awe inspiring as the first movie simply because we’re now familiar with the visuals, but solid. More of what already worked. Nice that it gives some backstory and information on the geopolitical situation of the area.
One minor quirk was I didn’t like a few scenes where Hemsworth would try to play his character in a goofy way a la Jack Sparrow.
I swear they dubbed in Charlene Theron’s voice for Anya a time or two.
It was never going to be as good as Fury Road. There was just no way. So he didn’t try. And I appreciate that. A few on the CG scenes were spotty, but it was better than some in the franchise, not as good as others. All in all, I enjoyed it and thought it was a ton of fun.
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned enough is how well it will work with Fury Road for first time viewers.
Think of Fury Road as the sequel and this becomes an awesome pair of films.
The Furiosa plot through the films is great and the elevation of the action and its stakes in Fury Road after the plot foundations in Furiosa make for a brilliant “sequel”.
Dunno if Charlize Theron had a twin sister but Anya definitely nailed Charlize’s voice.