An Australian cinema complex in the regional town of Emerald, Queensland is at risk of foreclosure after Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga failed to attract audiences.
Chris Hemsworth‘s expected blockbuster is fighting to break even on its USD $168million (AUD $251million) budget, despite a huge marketing campaign.
Stephen Goddard, the manager of Emerald Cinema Complex in QLD, sold just 222 tickets to the struggling epic in its first week, and said these disastrous numbers could spell the end of his 20-year business.
‘Furiosa is actually a really good movie, but it won’t matter. I can pretty confidently say we won’t get to December,’ admitted the business owner, who said a hit film would usually sell 1050 tickets in a week.
‘We will probably shut down. Back in 2006 to 2009, the top movies sold 4500 – 5000 seats, We did 66,000 seats all through that period.
‘We will do possibly 30,000 seats this year if we are lucky. Our costs have gone through the roof. How we are still here is beyond me.
‘We will probably shut down, quite truthfully, and I know that Mount Isa [cinema] is in the same boat. I have spoken to them and they are looking at it.’
He added the surprising thing was that Furiosa had received positive reviews from audiences and yet it was still failing to attract paying customers.
Goddard also blamed the poor performance of expected hits like Fall Guy, Planet of the Apes and Indiana Jones for his recent business woes.
Australian audiences have failed to show up to see the apocalyptic thriller, with box office website Numero reporting that it earned just $3.3million on its opening weekend.
The film has suffered a similar fate in the USA where it was released last week.
The four-day Memorial Day holiday weekend is typically one of the biggest box office events of the year, though that was not the case this year.
Furiosa topped the box office with an estimated USD $25.5 million, via Deadline, with The Garfield Movie just behind at USD $24.8 million.
It was the lowest Memorial Day weekend at the box office in 29 years, since Casper topped the box office in late May 1995 with USD $22 million, not counting the 2020 box office when theatres were closed due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Click here to resize this module
Furiosa screened in 3,804 theatres over the holiday weekend, earning a USD $6,703 (AU$10,000) per-screen average.
The soft debut means there is a long road ahead for the film, which has a lofty production budget of USD $168 million, not counting publicity and advertising.
Many box office analysts had projected a debut for Furiosa in the USD $40 million to USD $50 million range, but, much like competing movie The Fall Guy, it fell well under expectations.