Sci-fi prequel rejected at the box office is a Netflix hit

According to Jonathan Klotz
| Published 32 seconds ago

Roaring into theaters nearly a decade after the last film in the franchise, Furiosa: The Mad Max Saga became one of the most disappointing releases of the year, at least in terms of box office. Those who saw it on the big screen knew it was a wild ride that dared to do something different with a post-apocalyptic franchise so iconic that it defined an entire genre for decades. Now that Furious is available on Netflix, it’s finally finding the audience it deserves.

Rise of Furiosa

Set years ago Fury Road, Furious is the origin story of Charlize Theron’s character, and with both films now residing on Netflix, you can seamlessly switch between them for a wild five-hour thrill ride. The prequel completely avoids Max himself, outside of a brief cameo, and instead focuses on Furiosa’s childhood and her rise as Imperator Immortal Joe. With a slight shift in focus, fans will also get the best look at how society has fallen apart in a post-apocalypse with reminders that life is now short, cruel and incredibly violent.

Dementus, playing Chris Hemsworththe leader of the Biker Horde, he embodies the ethos of a post-apocalyptic society as he is cruel, brutal and driven by the violent death of his own family. Therefore, he kills both of Furiosa’s mother and then takes the young girl under his wing as a surrogate daughter. Furiosa a slower pace could be more appreciated on Netflix now that audiences are finally seeing Hemsworth’s performance, one of the best of his career, instead of learning about it through social media memes.

Halfway through the movie, we finally got it Anya Taylor-Joy as an adult, Furiosa learned how she survived in the ranks of first the Demented Hordes and then Immorten Joe’s citadel before finally making her move. Furiousas a prequel, it leans heavily on explaining more Fury Road than fans ever expected, from the obvious, like how she lost her hand, to the more subtle, like what Joe’s lieutenants were doing before the events of the Tom Hardy movie.

Finally Free from Warner Bros.

Before Furiosa release on Netflix, it was a success on Max, but on the biggest streaming than at Warner Bros. Warner Bros. is a large part of the reason the film was so poorly received; the director after all George Miller he wanted to shoot it right after he finished Fury Road, but the studio played hardball. A legal battle over his pay from the award-winning 2015 film ensured it would take years and almost a decade for the prequel to hit theaters.

Furious more Max refugees joined Netflix’s top ten, Dune: Part II and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empirebecause David Zaslav’s company decided to continue licensing Warner Bros. projects instead of using them to sell Max subscriptions. It’s just the latest in a long line of missteps the studio has made Furious, but ultimately by Warner Bros. they broke out of this process, ensured that the film became a hit. Sure, the company lost nearly $100 million in theaters, but Netflix’s massive reach will make it a cult classic.