Days after The Gorge passed a monumental streaming milestone, Anya Taylor-Joy has another reason to celebrate. Her biggest project as a lead, George Miller‘s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, is witnessing a surge in popularity on Netflix. The movie debuted to excellent reviews but a disastrous box office response last year, essentially sending the Mad Max franchise into hibernation for the foreseeable future. Remember, even Mad Max: Fury Road was a commercial underperformer, and Furiosa was green-lit primarily because of Fury Road‘s roaring popularity on home video.

According to FlixPatrol, Furiosa was among the 10 most-watched titles on the global Netflix charts earlier this week, when the leader board was dominated by Guillermo del Toro‘s Frankenstein. Released in 2024, Furiosa earned excellent reviews, with many comparing it favorably to Fury Road and praising Miller for having made bold creative deviations from that film. Furiosa is currently sitting at a “certified fresh” 90% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus reads, “Retroactively enriching Fury Road with greater emotional heft if not quite matching it in propulsive throttle, Furiosa is another glorious swerve in mastermind George Miller’s breathless race towards cinematic Valhalla.”

However, the movie was a box office disaster, earning comparisons to fellow prequel duds Solo: A Star Wars Story and Lightyear. Produced on a reported budget of around $170 million, the movie made a little less than $175 million worldwide. By comparison, Fury Road grossed around $350 million worldwide in 2015, having survived a famously torturous production that saw a feud erupt between stars Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, numerous location-related delays, and an inflating budget. Despite that, Fury Road won several Oscars and is now regarded as one of the greatest action movies of all time.

Anya Taylor-Joy Has Two Major Movies Lined Up

Furiosa took an entirely different approach, favoring a contemplative tone over bombast. Taylor-Joy was coming off her star-making performance in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit, and was supported in the movie by Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, and Lachy Hulme. Miller has said that he has more Mad Max stories in the vault, but the future of the franchise looks bleak for now. Taylor-Joy will next be seen in Romain Gavras‘ Sacrifice, and in Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune: Part Three.

Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.