Going back to the 80s and the height of Mad Max, the numbers are better than Fury Road, but not by much. The original film was made on a shoestring budget in 1980, only $200,000 altogether, and earning $100 million (of note, $10 million came from the United States, and the majority was from Australia), which is the type of success studios would kill for today. But that was the end of the good times for the franchise.
Road Warrior, released in 1982, and Beyond Thunderdome, released in 1985, made $24 million and $36 million, respectively. This isn’t bad, but it’s not the type of success anyone expects from Mad Max. For some reason, despite the consistently low box office numbers, the franchise looms large in pop culture and acts as a shorthand description for an entire genre of storytelling.
