Chris Hemsworth’s box office disaster Furiosa blamed for closure of Queensland regional cinema after selling just 222 tickets in a week
An Australian cinema complex in the regional city of Emerald, Queensland, is at risk of closure after Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga failed to attract audiences.
Chris Hemsworth’s anticipated blockbuster is fighting to break even on its $168 million (AUD$251 million) budget despite a massive marketing campaign.
Stephen Goddard, the manager of Emerald Cinema Complex in QLD, sold just 222 tickets for the struggling epic in its first week and said these disastrous figures could spell the end of its twenty-year run.
‘Furiosa is actually a very good film, but that doesn’t matter. I can say with certainty that we won’t make it to December,” admitted the business owner, who said a hit movie normally sells 1,050 tickets a week.
‘We’re probably going to close. Between 2006 and 2009, the top films sold 4500 – 5000 seats. During that entire period we sold 66,000 seats.
An Australian cinema complex in the regional town of Emerald, Queensland, is at risk of closure after the anticipated Chris Hemsworth (pictured) blockbuster Mad Mad: Furiosa failed to attract audiences. Furiosa is fighting to break even on its $168 million budget
‘If we’re lucky, we might get 30,000 seats this year. Our costs have gone through the roof. How we are still here is beyond me.
“We’ll probably close, quite honestly, and I know Mount Isa [cinema] is in the same boat. I’ve spoken to them and they’re looking at it.’
He added that what was surprising was that Furiosa had received positive reviews from the public but still failed to attract paying customers.
Goddard also blamed the poor performance of anticipated hits such as Fall Guy, Planet of the Apes and Indiana Jones for his recent business troubles.
Australian audiences didn’t turn up to see the apocalyptic thriller, with box office website Number report that it only made $3.3 million in its opening weekend.
Stephen Goddard, the manager of Emerald Cinema Complex in QLD, said these disastrous figures could spell the end of its 20-year history
The film suffered a similar fate in the US, 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, although that wasn’t the case this year.
Furiosa topped the box office with an estimated $25.5 million, via Deadlinewith The Garfield Movie just behind at $24.8 million.
It was the lowest Memorial Day weekend at the box office in 29 years since Casper topped the box office with $22 million in late May 1995, not including the 2020 box office when theaters were closed due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
‘Furiosa is actually a very good film, but that doesn’t matter. “I can confidently say we won’t make it to December,” Goddard told NewsWire
Furiosa was shown in 3,804 theaters over the holiday weekend and earned an average of $6,703 (AU$10,000) per screen.
The soft debut means there’s a long way to go for the film, which has a lofty production budget of $168 million, not including publicity and advertising.
Many box office analysts had predicted a debut for Furiosa to be in the $40 million to $50 million range, but like rival film The Fall Guy, it fell well short of expectations.
