Sci-Fi Prequel Rejected At The Box Office Is A Netflix Hit
Roaring into theaters nearly a decade after the last film in the franchise, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga became one of the most disappointing releases of the year, in terms of box office at least. Those who saw it on the big screen knew it was a wild ride that dared to do something different with the post-apocalyptic franchise, which is so iconic that it’s defined an entire genre for decades. Now that Furiosa is available on Netflix, it’s finally finding the audience it deserved in the first place.
The Rise Of Furiosa
Set years before Fury Road, Furiosa is the origin story of Charlize Theron’s breakout character, and thanks to both films now residing on Netflix, you can seamlessly transition between them and enjoy a wild five-hour thrill ride. The prequel does away entirely with Max himself, outside of a brief cameo, and instead focuses on the childhood of Furiosa and her rise as Immortal Joe’s Imperator. By shifting the focus ever so slightly, fans also get their best look yet at how society has crumbled in the post-apocalypse with reminders that life is now short, cruel, and incredibly violent.
Dementus, played by Chris Hemsworth, the leader of the Biker Horde, personifies the ethos of the post-apocalyptic society as he’s cruel, brutal, and driven thanks to his own family’s violent deaths. That’s why he both kills Furiosa’s mother and then takes the young girl under his wing as a surrogate daughter. Furiosa’s slower pace might be more appreciated on Netflix now that viewers are finally seeing Hemsworth’s performance, one of the best of his career, instead of learning about it from memes on social media.
Halfway through the film, we finally get to see Anya Taylor-Joy as a grown-up Furiosa, learning how she survived in the ranks of first Dementus’s horde and then Immorten Joe’s citadel before finally making her move. Furiosa, as a prequel, leans hard into explaining more of Fury Road than fans ever expected, from the obvious, such as how she loses her arm, to the more subtle, like what Joe’s lieutenants were doing before the events of the Tom Hardy film.
Finally Free From Warner Bros.
Prior to Furiosa’s release on Netflix, it was a success on Max, but there are more potential eyeballs out there for it on the largest streaming service in existence than on Warner Bros. mishandled service. Warner Bros. is a large part of the reason why the film was so poorly received in the first place; after all, director George Miller wanted to film it right after he was done with Fury Road, but the studio played hardball. A legal battle over his salary from the award-winning 2015 film ensured it would be years and nearly a decade before the prequel ever hit theaters.
Furiosa has been joined on the Netflix top ten by fellow Max refugees, Dune: Part II and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, as David Zaslav’s company decides to continue licensing out Warner Bros. projects instead of using them to sell Max subscriptions. It’s only the latest in a long line of missteps that the studio took with Furiosa, but finally, by removing themselves from the process, Warner Bros. has ensured the film becomes a hit. Sure, it lost the company nearly $100 million in theaters, but thanks to Netflix’s vast reach, it’ll become a cult classic.
