Soundwave said:
Well it's easy after the fact to say a hit movie had appeal, it's harder to guess before hand. A lot of people for example didn't have the Mario movie being a hit, even Barbie, I think it only dawned on some folkes about a few weeks before release that it was going to be a massive hit. Godzilla Minus One made 116 million worldwide (56 million in the US) which is impressive given it's a Japanese language film with a small budget, but Furiosa has already made more than that or is about to. Mad Max isn't really a hit franchise, even the Mel Gibson one's peaked with Beyond Thunderdome, and Beyond Thunderdome was the 18th biggest domestic grosser of 1985 below things like Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Fury Road, the franchise's "break out" wasn't even a top 20 worldwide hit for 2015, coming in below a flop like Terminator Genisys. Mad Max is a niche franchise, if anything Fury Road probably overperformed as 2015 was a boom time for ticket sales and Charlize Theron was a fairly big star still. |
The first mad max was actually a big success, making 100 million worldwide and settling a record for being the most profitable film ever at the time. But after that the series became more niche, with the 2 sequels only making a fraction of that. The near 30 year gap between thunderdome and fury road likely didn't help with keeping the series relevant to the general public.
Despite road warrior being considered a classic by many people, it is not a film that many seem to have actually seen compared to other action classics like terminator 1 and 2.