Anya Taylor-Joy’s $168 Million Highly-Rated Sci-Fi Flop Turns Into a Major Hit on Netflix

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Adam Blevins began working in the entertainment industry in 2022 as a Staff Writer for Agents of Fandom, where he progressed to Senior Editor and interviewed talent from Marvel Studios, House of the Dragon, and Planet of the Apes. He joined Collider as a News Author in April 2024, was promoted to a Senior position in December 2024, and has written over 3,000 articles for the site, including exclusives relating to Avengers: Doomsday, The Penguin, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, and more. He primarily writes about the latest box office numbers and the hottest movies and TV shows on streaming, while also covering superhero and sci-fi news. He has completed a set visit for The Chosen and even has several months of experience writing Gaming Features at ScreenRant. You can find him on X, LinkedIn, and Muckrack.

Anya Taylor-Joy is best known for her Emmy-nominated role in The Queen’s Gambit, but two years ago she headlined a prequel to a beloved Tom Hardy movie that’s scoring big on streaming. Taylor-Joy stars opposite Chris Hemsworth (Thor: Love and Thunder) in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the sci-fi action epic following the rise of Furiosa, who was previously portrayed by the great Charlize Theron. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is streaming on HBO Max in America and Netflix globally, where it's back in the top 10 in several countries around the world.

As with all other Mad Max movies, George Miler wrote and directed the film with help from Nick Lathouris on the script. Furiosa takes place around 15 years before the events of Mad Max: Fury Road, the 2015 sci-fi film that influenced a generation of sci-fi movies. Miller previously used Mel Gibson to bring the franchise to the big screen in the late 70s and early 80s. Warner Bros. clearly expected Furiosa to be one of its biggest hits of 2024 — marketing for the film started months in advance, but it ended up being a bigger disappointment than anyone could have expected.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga reportedly cost around $168 million to make, and the film just did recuperate this at the box office by grossing $174 million. While it may be easy to look at this and think the film made $6 million in profit, this isn’t the case. Studios generally split revenue 50/50 with theaters, and when also factoring in marketing, this usually puts a film’s break-even point at around twice its production budget.

Anya Taylor-Joy Has Another Sci-Fi Film Dominating Streaming

Furiosa may be struggling to maintain its ground on streaming, but that isn’t the case for another of Anya Taylor-Joy’s sci-fi films that was released in 2025. Just last year, Taylor-Joy starred opposite Miles Teller in The Gorge, the sci-fi horror feature from director Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange). The Gorge didn’t get a chance in theaters, as the film was released straight to streaming on Apple TV, but it’s still one of the top five most popular movies on the platform globally. It’s managed to hold off newer arrivals like Highest 2 Lowest (Denzel Washington) and The Lost Bus (Matthew McConaughey).