Anya-Taylor Joy's box-office flop becomes streaming hit

Actress Anya Taylor-Joy has additional cause for celebration only days after The Gorge achieved a significant streaming accomplishment on Apple TV+, as George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, her largest project as lead, is becoming increasingly popular on Netflix. The Mad Max franchise was effectively put on hold for the foreseeable future after the film launched to great reviews but a dismal box office response in 2024. Recall that Mad Max: Fury Road was a box office success in 2015, and the key reason Furiosa was approved was due to Fury Road’s enormous critical and commercial success, including its strong performance on home video.

Earlier this week, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (released in 2025) dominated the global Netflix charts, with Furiosa ranking among the top 10 films, as per FlixPatrol. When Furiosa was released in May 2024, it received great reviews. Many people compared it favorably to Fury Road and commended Miller for making daring artistic departures from that movie. As of right now, Furiosa has a “certified fresh” 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a website that aggregates reviews. According to critics, “Furiosa is another glorious swerve in mastermind George Miller’s breathless race towards cinematic Valhalla, retroactively enriching Fury Road with greater emotional heft if not quite matching it in propulsive throttle.”

But the film was a box office failure, drawing similarities to other prequel failures like Lightyear and Solo: A Star Wars Story. The film earned a little less than $175 million worldwide despite having a stated budget of about $168 million (or $170 million).

In contrast, Fury Road made over $380 million worldwide in 2015 after surviving a notoriously difficult production that included a star dispute between Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, multiple location-related delays, and an expanding budget. Despite this, Fury Road went on to win multiple Oscars and is currently considered one of the best action films ever made.