Furiosa’s Opening Weekend: A Deep Dive into Audience Insights and Marketing Opportunities

With Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga dashing into Memorial Weekend in the US, we examine the movie’s US insights using Movio's Research Console including audience behaviour, demographic trends, and actionable marketing opportunities.

Its most comparable titles based on Movio’s Similarity Algorithm include Dune: Part Two, Deadpool & Wolverine, with the latter’s tickets going on sale last week.

Moviegoer Frequency

The opening weekend attracted mostly movie buffs, with 36% of the audience being frequent* moviegoers and 13% being very frequent moviegoers. This is a notable increase compared to Dune: Part Two, surpassing its frequent and very frequent audiences by 17% and 10%. Almost 30% of the audience had last attended in the cinemas within the past week.

The average recency was short, at 78 days, indicating that the last movie many of this audience saw in cinemas was in March which was likely Dune: Part Two released in this period. ?The high frequent audience came at the expense of infrequent moviegoers which under-indexed at 23% of the audience.

The previous instalment, 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, also attracted predominantly frequent moviegoers at 39% of its opening weekend audience. A strong frequent audience appeal is typical of the action genre which generally over-indexes for frequent moviegoers by 10% compared to all movies recorded in the Research Console, and by 1% for very frequent moviegoers.

Session Formats

Moviegoers were clearly excited to experience Furiosa on the largest screens available, with PLF and IMAX sessions accounting for over half of the opening weekend - an increase of over 20% compared to Fury Road. ?

IMAX sessions in particular accounted for 34% of the total, the highest for any wide-release opening weekend this year, and more than double of Dune: Part Two’s IMAX sessions (16%).

Demographic Breakdown

Female attendance was 8% lower than Dune: Part Two at just 21%, and also 19% below the 2024 average for opening weekends so far. Males made up 79% of the opening weekend audience, with those aged 25-34 representing 24% of the total audience. Overall, the 25-44 age group accounted for over half of the opening weekend audience.

Marketing Opportunities

-?????? Engaging with female moviegoers

Since the opening weekend attracted a smaller female audience than Fury Road, there is an opportunity for targeted marketing to broaden the film’s appeal beyond its primary male demographic. Action films’ female attendance naturally tends to increase in later weeks, as observed with Fury Road, so consider leaning into this by highlighting Anya Taylor-Joy’s leading role as the strong character towards female moviegoers who enjoyed Dune: Part Two.

-?????? Cross-promotional campaigns

Additionally, the already strong audience overlap with Deadpool & Wolverine, whose pre-sales are over-indexing with an infrequent crowd, presents a unique chance for cinemas to leverage. Consider targeting the Marvel film’s ticket purchasers who have yet to watch Furiosa with a “handpicked” recommendation for the title - a short and sweet, personalized approach to encourage an incremental visit from the more casual moviegoer.

-?????? Promoting premium experiences

With its opening weekend audience showing a preference for premium experiences, offering bundles that combine IMAX or PLF tickets with concessions could incentivise ticket upgrades and be an effective way to encourage a broader audience to experience your premium offering. Equally, a simple reminder that the film is still showing on your PLF screens is an easy but effective win to ensure interested customers don’t miss out.

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*Frequency is based on a moviegoers' six-month session count:

< 2 = Infrequent

2-5 = Occasional

6-25 = Frequent

26+ = Very Frequent