Twitter and Threads were consumed by conversation over the latest big budget popcorn pic of 2024 to open with far less audience enthusiasm, in the form of ticket sales this Memorial Day weekend.

“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke, the fifth Mad Max film to make it to theaters, and was an epic bust. The budget has been reported in the $150-$168-$173 million range, and $26 million in North America ain’t gonna cover the parking. It earned $32 million over the worst Memorial Day weekend Hollywood has experienced this millenium.

It barely beat out a widely-panned “Garfield” reboot for weekend bragging rights.

“Furiosa” fans are furious, and Hollywood itself, judging by the hot takes reports of hand-wringing, is ready to panic. Because Warners’ bust follows Universal’s humiliating take for the hyped and adorable “The Fall Guy.”

As there is no “Tom Cruise saves the Box Office” set for this summer, comic book movies have been put out to pasture and there’s little chance of a “Barbie” or “Oppenheimer” sized breakout for this season, fall or even the holidays, this feels like an epochal calamity. Is “going out to the movies” shrinking permanently as a part of the American leisure experience?

Why is it happening? Everybody has theories, and reading and participating in legions of conversations about this on social media, I thought I’d sum up the best and most likely.

Firstly, one has to recall that it’s not EVERY movie that’s underperformed for its genre, fanbase, franchise and studio/prognosticator expectations.

“Dune 2” blew up. A middling “Kung Fu Panda” sequel, and mediocre and dumb “Godzilla x Kong” and “Planet of the Apes” installments all did well enough, or even exceeded expectations.

All four were franchise pictures with the audience knowing what they were getting going in. “Dune 2” had many months of extra build-up of expectations, which bolstered its opening.

But “Furiosa” is also a franchise, albeit one we hadn’t seen on the screen since the sensational “Mad Max: Fury Road” of 2015. And the Warner Brothers bust of “Furiosa” is the reason we all sat up and paid attention to the string of “Wait, what happened to ‘The First Omen/The Fall Guy/Furiosa?”

The theories for why so many well-reviewed, strong-word-of-mouth blockbusters went bust?

1. The collapse of the release window. Too many people are too content to say “I’ll watch it at home next week/month/within six weeks.” That’s a pandemic era panicked closing of the release window that changed audience viewing habits, perhaps forever. People have lots of viewing devices and gigantic TVs. The compromise is still there. At the theater, the movie dominates you and the theater controls your experience. You are immersed. At home, you can hit pause, have conversations, prep food, etc. But nore traditional moviegoers are willing to accept that compromise and studios haven’t made any noise about returning the theatrical release window to two or three months
2. Ticket prices are higher, much higher in some places. This is an argument a couple of theater managers I know make, over and over. Inflation and “greedflation” are real, and while movies are still “your cheapest entertainment option,” the price points, upselling of the experience (IMAX, RPX, higher concession prices) are enough to make one wince. I’ve been reviewing movies and writing about filmmaking  a long time, and no damned way am I paying over $20 for a paid IMAX “preview” of a “Planet of the Apes” movie. Ever again.
3. Marketing is harder. The mass marketing of movies used to involve bombing network and cable TV with ads, starting with The Super Bowl, for big “event” pictures, heating up the week of release. With everybody streaming, the audience has atomized. Social media, Youtube, etc ads don’t have the reach. Twitter “impressions” and “Followers” (Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy have 100 million followers) used to be an indictator of a picture’s profile and potential take. Twitter is now X and the guy who owns it is a nut and a menace to democracy and usage has plummeted. Where do you advertise your blockbuster? Online buzz made “Civil War” a hit, but it’s a far more modest production than “Fall Guy.”
4. Franchises are tired. Comic book movie tired. The trailers to “Furiosa” and “Apes” and “Kong” and “Panda” promised “more of the same.” Not every corner of the audience is “Fast and Furious” numb, willing to see the same movie over and over again. No way “Furiosa” was going to top “Fury Road.” I mean, that had Charlize and a Wasteland wacko charging into hijacking battle with his own Guitar Hero. “Furiosa” looks like the same movie as “The Road Warrior” and “Fury Road.” Almost exactly the same. It is.
5. The theatrical experience is a problem. Endless ads, showtimes that are in no way reliable because of it. Who has the time? Long film running times are an issue. Streaming changed the running time tolerance, who has three hours plus to burn on a theatrical visit? Otherwise people playing on their phones, talking away, etc. don’t help.
6. Star power is lacking in all of these busts. Anya Taylor-Joy hasn’t “opened” a film. Ryan Gosling is a star, but is he “box office?” Emily Blunt’s been in big hits and is a reliable leading lady, but she isn’t box office money in the bank, either. And so on down the line. Audiences go to see their favorites in roles identified them with these days. Vin Diesel in a Dodge is a bigger draw than any of these folks. Dwayne Johnson, Nic Cage, Denzel, Liam et al are aging out of their prime drawing power as their audience ages. The newer stars aren’t big draws yet. Well, except for Sydney Sweeney.
7. I wonder if theater chain “membership” is impacting bottom the weekend take. A lot of people are signing up for AMC and Regal et al bulk viewing discounts and are sending less cash to studios and viewers are often incentivized to see a picture later, on off days, etc. 

But “Kong” and “Apes” “Panda” and “Dune” — a remake, the third version of a venerable sci-fi property — overcame all these shortcomings. Why? That’s a question Warner Bros and indeed Hollywood should be asking this week.

The horror movie audience has shrunk by a third, as I have mentioned on MovieNation several times this year. It didn’t happen overnight, but that “going out for a fright” generation may have aged out of it, or simply decided the cash outlay wasn’t worth it.

“Monkey Man” was the best action pic of the spring. Nobody went. A hard sell (Indian film, mostly in English, Dev Patel isn’t “box office” either), but getting the film audience’s attention is proving almost impossible to achieve. And talking them into spending cash on The Theatrical Experience is proving almost as tough.

And fans yelling “I HATE YOU PEOPLE” for not going, as “Furiosa” faithful are shrieking on social media, isn’t helping.