‘Garfield’ & ‘Furiosa’ In Dead Heat Over Memorial Day

EARLY SUNDAY AM UPDATE: The 4-day fight between Warner Bros‘ Furiosa and Alcon/Sony‘s The Garfield Movie will drag out into Monday, both titles currently in a dead heat eyeing $31M over 4-days, $25M over 3 days.

There are those showing the 48-year old comic strip feline eating the one-armed desert renegade’s lunch with $31M to $30.96M, but it’s too close to call right now. In regards, to Garfield upsetting Furiosa, we told you this was in the cards.

Whether Garfield or Furiosa wins, it will be the lowest opening for a Memorial Day weekend No. 1 title in 29 years, the last being 1995’s Casper at $22M.

After beating Furiosa on Saturday, $8.3M to $8M, Garfield looks to have the edge over her on Sunday and Monday. Garfield is booked at 4,035 boosted by some PLFS. Furiosa is in play at 3,804 juiced by 400 Imax auditoriums, Dolby, 4DX, D-box, etc.

Some blame Warners for starting the last leg of their campaign too late in May. Realize that they did kick off Furiosa in late Q4 at Brazilian Comic-Con with Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth in tow. That’s a pretty big platform to blast word of mouth off from, and it’s the same place Warners re-ignited the campaign for Legendary’s Dune: Part Two. Others believe that the slowdown here stems from Taylor-Joy taking over the title role from Charlize Theron. However, anyway you cut it, the reality is that Furiosa and Mad Max appeal to a finite fanboy, largely male audience. It’s R-rated, not five quad, which is why there wasn’t a lot of heat coming off of the first trailer drop in November.

In PostTrak exits, 52% said they went to Furiosa because it was part of a franchise they love, while 34% cited director George Miller, 32% cited Taylor-Joy and 25% Chris Hemsworth. In regards to Garfield, the overall reason why people bought tickets was because it looked fun.

Sony and Alcon are high that they’ve revived Garfield and who can disagree. Pic’s opening even on a 3-day beats the previous debuts of 2006’s Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties ($7.2M 3-day) and 2004’s Garfield: The Movie which opened to $21.7M. The Garfield Movie off a $60M production cost before P&A is bound to be profitable with $50M already in the till from its offshore release.

Paramount’s IF at 4,068 theaters is still third with a $15.6M second weekend, -54%, after a $6M Saturday, +41% from Friday’s $4.3M. 4-day is $20.2M, running total by EOD Monday is $62.7M.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes from 20th Century Studios/Disney at 3,550 theaters posted $5M Saturday, +48% over Friday. Third weekend is $12.8M, -50%, 4-day is $16.5M and running total is $125.9M. The pic became the first title of summer 2024 to cross $100M last weekend. See, there is some pulse in the marketplace.

Fifth goes to Universal’s Fall Guy at 2,955 with a $2.3M Saturday, +44%, for a 3-day of $6M, 4-day of $7.6M and running total by end of Monday of $73.8M.

Angel Studios’ faith-based title Sight is crashing with $830K Saturday, off 24% from Friday’s $1M which translates to a 3-day of $2.8M and 4-day of $3.6M.

The first part of our weekend analysis and why we shouldn’t worry about the fate of theatrical, click here.

We’ll have more updates for you on Monday.