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Here's a new edition of "Directors at the Box Office", which seeks to explore the directors' trajectory at the box office and analyze their hits and bombs. I already talked about a few, and as I promised, it's George Miller's turn.

Miller studied medicine at the University of New South Wales, and completed his residency at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital in 1972. But Miller was more interested in cinema, having made a few short films with his twin brother John. So he abandoned the medical career to focus on filmmaking.

From a box office perspective, how reliable was he to deliver a box office hit?

That's the point of this post. To analyze his career.

It should be noted that as he started his career in the 1970s, the domestic grosses here will be adjusted by inflation. The table with his highest grossing films, however, will be left in its unadjusted form, as the worldwide grosses are more difficult to adjust.

Mad Max (1979)

"When the gangs take over the highway... Remember he's on your side."

His directorial debut. It stars Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns and Roger Ward, and follows "Mad" Max Rockatansky, a police officer turned vigilante in a dystopian near-future Australia in the midst of societal collapse.

While in residency at a Sydney hospital, Miller met amateur filmmaker Byron Kennedy at a summer film school in 1971, and they went on to make a few short films. As they considered ideas for a feature-length film, Miller came up with "a silent movie with sound", employing highly kinetic images reminiscent of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd while the narrative itself was basic and simple. They hired James McCausland, the Melbourne finance editor of The Australian, to help in writing the story. McCausland drew heavily from his observations of the effects of the 1973 oil crisis on Australian motorists.

To find investors, they designed a 40-page presentation, circulated it widely, and eventually raised the money. Kennedy and Miller also contributed funds themselves by doing three months of emergency medical calls, with Kennedy driving the car while Miller did the doctoring. With this, they were able to get $400,000, enough to make the film.

Originally, Miller wanted an American actor to play Max, hoping that this would guarantee it would be seen across the world. But he eventually changed his mind, "the whole budget would be taken up by a so-called American name." Instead, the cast deliberately featured lesser-known actors, so they did not carry past associations with them. His first choice was James Healey, but he declined because he disliked the dialogue. He was impressed by Mel Gibson's audition, and decided to cast him as Max.

Miller described the whole experience as "guerrilla filmmaking", with the crew closing roads without filming permits and not using walkie-talkies because their frequency coincided with the police radio, and he and Kennedy would even sweep down the roads after filming was done. As filming progressed, however, the Victoria Police became interested in the production, and they began to help the crew by closing down roads and escorting vehicles. Because of the film's limited budget, all but one of the police uniforms in the film were made of vinyl leather, with only one genuine leather uniform made for stunt sequences involving Bisley and Gibson.

The film surpassed expectations in every way. Not only was it a big hit in Australia, but it was also big in the rest of the world, earning $100 million worldwide. At one point, it held the Guinness World Record for the highest box-office-to-budget ratio of any motion picture. The film earned high praise, particularly for its originality and action sequences. The film helped launch the careers of both Miller and Gibson.

• Budget: $400,000.

• Domestic gross: $8,750,000. ($33.8 million adjusted)

• Worldwide gross: $100,750,000.

Mad Max 2 (1981)

"Just one man can make the difference."

His second film. The second installment in the Mad Max franchise, it stars Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, Mike Preston, Max Phipps, and Vernon Wells. It follows "Mad Max" Rockatansky, who helps a community of settlers to defend themselves against a roving band of marauders.

Now that he was famous after the colossal success of Mad Max, Miller tried to develop a rock and roll movie, the working title of which was Roxanne. Miller and Terry Hayes teamed up in Los Angeles to write Roxanne, but the script was ultimately shelved. Miller then became intrigued with the idea of returning to the world of Mad Max, as a larger budget would allow him to be more ambitious. He said, "Making Mad Max was a very unhappy experience for me. I had absolutely no control over the final product. There was strong pressure to make a sequel, and I felt we could do a better job with a second movie." Inspired by Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces and the work of Carl Jung, as well as the films of Akira Kurosawa, Miller recruited Hayes to join the production as screenwriter.

One of the spectacular stunts in the film, in which one of the motorcycle-riding raiders hits a car, flies off the bike, smashes his legs against the car, and cartwheels through the air towards the camera, was actually a genuine and nearly fatal accident. The stuntman, Guy Norris, was supposed to just fly over the car without hitting it. He survived, but his leg was broken badly. The moment looked so dramatic that it was kept in the film.

In Australia, it earned $10.8 million (in Australian dollars), which was double of what Mad Max made. In the United States, the film was retitled as The Road Warrior, choosing to hide that it was a sequel as the original film barely made an impression. In the end, it wound up with over $70 million worldwide. It received critical acclaim, and to this day, it's named as one of the greatest sequels of all time. Miller was on fire.

• Budget: $4,500,000.

• Domestic gross: $23,667,907. ($78.2 million adjusted)

• Worldwide gross: $73,667,907.

Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

"You're traveling through another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. Next stop..."

His third film. This is an anthology film based on the iconic series, with four segments directed separately by Miller, John Landis, Steven Spielberg, and Joe Dante. Miller's segment was a remake of "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", and starred John Lithgow as a passenger who notices a hideous gremlin on the wing of a plane.

Look, there's not much we can say about this. So... let's address the elephant in the room.

During the filming of the "Time Out” segment, directed by Landis on July 23, 1982, at around 2:30 a.m., actor Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen died in an accident involving a helicopter being used on the set. The two child actors were hired in violation of California law, which prohibits child actors from working at night or in proximity to explosions, and requires the presence of a teacher or social worker. During the subsequent trial, Landis denied culpability for the accident, but admitted that their hiring was "wrong". The deaths led to several years of legal action; although no individuals were found to be criminally liable, new procedures and safety standards were imposed in the filmmaking industry.

The rest of the segments were filmed after the accident, and its presence impacted the other segments. It is said that Steven Spielberg was not enthusiastic for his segment, while Miller abandoned post-production on his segment without announcement, leaving Joe Dante to supervise editing.

The film drew mixed reactions. The consensus was that Dante's and Miller's segments were the best, while Landis' and Spielberg's were the weakest. The film made $42 million on a $10 million budget, which was below what Warner Bros. was expecting.

• Budget: $10,000,000.

• Domestic gross: $29,450,919 ($94.3 million adjusted).

• Worldwide gross: $42,450,919.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

"This is his greatest adventure."

His fourth film. The third installment in the Mad Max franchise, the film stars Mel Gibson and Tina Turner, and follows "Mad Max" Rockatansky, who is exiled into the desert.

The film actually did not start as a Mad Max film, but a post-apocalyptic Lord of the Flies film about a tribe of children who are found by an adult. It only started development as part of the franchise when Miller suggested that Max is the man who finds the children. With $10 million, it was the most expensive Australian film back then.

This was the first Mad Max film made without producer Byron Kennedy, who had been killed in a helicopter crash in 1983. Miller was hesitant to continue without his producing partner, saying later: "I was reluctant to go ahead. And then there was a sort of need to – let's do something just to get over the shock and grief of all of that." Miller co-directed the film with George Ogilvie, with whom he had worked on the 1983 miniseries The Dismissal. About this decision, he said: "I had a lot on my plate. I asked my friend George Ogilvie, who was working on the mini-series, 'Could you come and help me?' But I don't remember the experience because I was doing it to just... You know, I was grieving." For the film, Miller and Ogilvie employed a group workshopping rehearsal technique that they had developed.

It was another box office success. It received positive reviews from critics, although some were not fond of the film's second half. Some fans of the series have criticized the film for being "Hollywood-ized" and having a lighter tone than its predecessors. Miller and Gibson were ready to move on from Mad Max and make other films, marking the latter's final appearance as Max.

• Budget: $10,000,000.

• Domestic gross: $36,230,219. ($107.4 million adjusted)

• Worldwide gross: $72,230,219.

The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

"Three beautiful women. One lucky devil."

His fifth film. Based on the novel by John Updike, it stars Jack Nicholson, Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon and Veronica Cartwright. The film follows three best friends who are unaware that they are witches and that their regular meetings have formed an informal coven; the arrival in town of a mysterious man who starts courting them marks the start of a back-and-forth between him and the three women.

This was Miller's first Hollywood film, and the fact that he got so much talent attached is a testament to his power in Australia. But it wasn't a good experience for him. For starters, he didn't like casting Cher in the film, but WB forced him to give her a key role. Miller kept complaining in front of Cher to the studio executives that he did not want Cher to ruin his film, and whenever he said Cher he would make quotation mark signs with his hands. All in front of Cher.

Producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber convinced Miller to sign on as the director by touting how great their producer-director relationship had been with Steven Spielberg on The Color Purple. Miller was good friends with Spielberg, and wished he had talked to him and found out the truth: that Spielberg had ensured through WB that Peters and Guber would keep off the set and not be allowed any editing rights. Peters suddenly decided he wanted aliens to appear in the film, even though it didn't make sense with the story. He even showed up one day on-set with a stuntman dressed as an alien, and told Miller to put him in a scene, any scene. Miller and Jack Nicholson then left the set until Peters gave up on his fixation.

Miller revealed that the shoot had been extremely difficult, because he was initially unfamiliar with Hollywood-style communication. In a meeting to discuss ways to reduce the budget, Miller volunteered to give up his trailer because he was always needed on the set and had no time to use it. The studio concluded that he was a pushover, so they began to interfere with his production requests. If he asked for 50 extras, the studio would provide a dozen. If he asked for two cameras, they would provide one. Miller decided to fight fire with fire, and refused to shoot each scene until his production demands were met. The studio responded by looking for a new director, but were prevented by Nicholson, who supported Miller and vowed to walk off the production if he was replaced.

With big names, the film earned $103 million worldwide, becoming Miller's highest grossing film. But reviews were mixed, particularly for its second half. As mentioned, Miller hated the experience of making the film.

• Budget: $22,000,000.

• Domestic gross: $63,766,510. ($179.1 million adjusted)

• Worldwide gross: $103,166,510.

Lorenzo's Oil (1992)

"Some people make their own miracles."

His sixth film. It stars Nick Nolte, Susan Sarandon, Peter Ustinov, and Zach O'Malley Greensburg, and is based on the true story of Augusto and Michaela Odone, parents who search for a cure for their son Lorenzo's adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), leading to the development of Lorenzo's oil.

Miller was interested in making this kind of film, given he was a qualified doctor. The film was originally conceived and shot with the intent that as Lorenzo got sicker and sicker, the movie would fade from color to black-and-white. However, the production ran out of the money needed to process the film in that way, and the movie ended up being in color from beginning to end.

This film marked Miller's first failure at the box office, failing to even hit $10 million. But it received high praise, although some in the medical field criticized it for falsely painting a picture of a miracle cure. Sarandon earned a Best Actress nomination at the Oscars, while Miller received his first nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

• Budget: $30,000,000.

• Domestic gross: $7,286,388. ($16.5 million adjusted)

• Worldwide gross: $7,286,388.

Babe (1995)

"A little pig goes a long way."

Okay, so this wasn't directed by Miller. But how can we omit this?????

The film was directed by Chris Noonan, while Miller co-wrote and produced it. Based on The Sheep-Pig by Dick King-Smith, it stars James Cromwell and Magda Szubanski. It tells the story of a farm pig who wants to do the work of a sheepdog.

One of the reasons why it took Miller ten years to bring the story to the screen was because he was waiting for special effects technology to catch up with his vision for the film. The film had extensive animal training, as over 1,000 animals were required for the film. Because baby pigs grow so fast, 48 pigs were used during filming for the role of Babe. There were tensions on set between Miller and Noonan, with the latter claiming he was trying to take credit from him.

When James Cromwell was handed the screenplay, he thumbed through it to see how many lines he had. He saw that he didn't have that many (he had only 16 lines; 171 words of spoken dialogue, and 61 words that were sung), so decided that he would do it as a nice easy film. What he didn't realize was that he would have more screen time in this film than any of his previous films. Cromwell mentioned that after finishing the film, he would become vegan.

The film was a gigantic success, earning over $250 million worldwide. It received universal acclaim, with many declaring it one of the best films of 1995. It surprised at the Academy Awards by earning 7 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay. He might not have directed it, but Miller bounced back after the failure of Lorenzo's Oil.

• Budget: $30,000,000.

• Domestic gross: $63,658,910. ($133.2 million adjusted)

• Worldwide gross: $254,134,910.

Babe: Pig in the City (1998)

"In the heart of the city, a pig with heart."

His seventh film. The sequel to Babe, it stars Magda Szubanski, James Cromwell, and Mickey Rooney. In the film, Babe, fresh from his victory in the sheepherding contest, returns to Farmer Hoggett’s farm, but after Farmer Hoggett is injured and unable to work, Babe has to go to the big city to save the farm.

Chris Noonan, the director of the original film had no involvement with this sequel, due to a bitter falling out with Miller because Noonan felt that Miller was trying to take credit for the original and severely downplay his role in the film's creation, a conflict that had began during filming. Noonan was not even invited to the film's 1998 premiere. Noonan was asked about the sequel and said that he had never been even slightly interested in making a sequel, feeling the the original Babe was perfect as it was and that there was nowhere to go for a sequel, and said that if it had been up to him, this film would never have been made.

This film failed to replicate the original's success, closing with a very poor $69 million against a $90 million budget. It is said that Noonan was happy with the film's failure. This failure, alongside Meet Joe Black, were one of the big reasons behind Casey Silver's exit as Universal's head. The film also received mixed reviews, with many complaining about the film's dark content despite its G-rating. Some championed the film though; Gene Siskel named it the best film of 1998, while Roger Ebert named it one of the year's Top 10 films. It has since garnered a cult following.

• Budget: $90,000,000.

• Domestic gross: $18,319,860. ($35.8 million adjusted)

• Worldwide gross: $69,131,860.

Happy Feet (2006)

"Everybody dance now!"

His eighth film. It stars the voices of Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving, Anthony LaPaglia, Magda Szubanski and Steve Irwin. Set in the cold land of Antarctica, the film follows Mumble, an emperor penguin who is able to tap dance brilliantly despite lacking the ability to sing a heartsong to attract a soulmate. After being continuously ridiculed and rejected by peers and his own father, Mumble departs on a journey to learn what is causing the local fish population to decline — and to find himself along the way.

While filming Mad Max 2, Miller met a grizzled old cameraman whose father was Frank Hurley of the Shackleton expeditions. He said, "We were sitting in this bar, having a milkshake, and he looked across at me and said, 'Antarctica'. He'd shot a documentary there. He said, 'You've got to make a film in Antarctica. It's just like out here, in the wasteland. It's spectacular.' And that always stuck in my head." It was also partially inspired by earlier documentaries such as the BBC's Life in the Freezer.

Happy Feet was on Miller's mind while filming Mad Max 2. Think about that for a second.

In 2001, Doug Mitchell impulsively presented WB studio president Alan Horn with an early rough draft of the film's screenplay, and asked them to read it while he and Miller flew back to Australia. By the time they had landed, WB had decided to provide funding on the film. Production was slated to begin sometime after the completion of the fourth Mad Max film Fury Road, but geopolitical complications pushed Happy Feet to the forefront in early 2003.

The animation is invested heavily in motion capture technology, with the dance scenes acted by human dancers. The tap dancing for Mumble was provided by Savion Glover, who was also co-choreographer for the dance sequences. The dancers went through "Penguin School" to learn how to move like a penguin, and also wore head apparatus to mimic a penguin's beak. The film needed an enormous group of computers, and Animal Logic worked with IBM to build a server farm with sufficient processing potential. The film took four years to make. Lighting Supervisor and VFX Department Supervisor Ben Gunsberger said that this was partly because they needed to build new infrastructure and tools.

The film opened with $41.6 million on its first weekend, far above the other opener (Casino Royale) and easily Miller's biggest debut. It held incredibly well through the holidays, closing with $198 million domestically and $384 million worldwide, becoming Miller's biggest film ever. It earned very positive reviews, particularly for its visuals. The film won the Oscar for Best Animated Film, finally making Miller an Oscar winner. What a trajectory.

• Budget: $100,000,000.

• Domestic gross: $198,000,317. ($313.3 million adjusted)

• Worldwide gross: $384,336,179.

Happy Feet Two (2011)

"Every step counts."

His ninth film. The sequel to Happy Feet, it stars the voices of Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Hank Azaria, P!nk, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Sofia Vergara, Common, Hugo Weaving, Richard Carter, Magda Szubanski, and Anthony LaPaglia. In the film, young penguin Erik, who is reluctant to dance, runs away from home and encounters the Mighty Sven, a tufted puffin. When the penguins are trapped by a giant wall of ice and snow, they must save Antarctica.

As you may know, P!nk replaced Brittany Murphy in the role of Gloria, after Murphy died on December 2009. She was expected to return soon to voice the character, but what if I told you she was already out of the film even before she died? Yep. So apparently, WB dropped her from the film during early stages of the production after stories about illegal drug use appeared on tabloid websites.

Miller co-founded Dr. D Studios, a Sydney-based digital animation studio in mid-2007, and Happy Feet Two was its first production. But fate had other plans.

The film disappointed in its opening weekend with just $21 million, and closed with just $64 million domestically and $159 million worldwide, failing to recoup its $135 million investment. It was planned as the first film for Dr. D Studios, but it wound up being its last film as well, for the studio closed in 2013. It received mixed reviews, criticizing its story and lack of character development. When questioned over whether he would like a third film, Miller said, "If you put a gun to my head and said, "You have to come up with a story for Happy Feet Three", I'd say shoot me."

• Budget: $135,000,000.

• Domestic gross: $64,006,466. ($90.7 million adjusted)

• Worldwide gross: $159,197,038.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

"The future belongs to the mad."

His tenth film. The fourth installment in the Mad Max franchise, it stars Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Zoë Kravitz, Abbey Lee, and Courtney Eaton. Set in a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland where petrol and water are scarce commodities, it follows Max Rockatansky, who joins forces with Imperator Furiosa against warlord Immortan Joe and his army, leading to a lengthy road battle.

In 1987, Miller came up with the concept for a fourth Mad Max film, simply described as a long continuous chase. But he didn't really start developing the film till 1998, when during a flight, he came up with a story revolving around "violent marauders [who] were fighting, not for oil or for material goods, but for human beings." He worked with storyboard artists, managing to make 3,500 panels (almost the same as the number of shots as in the finished film), wanting the film to be almost a continuous chase, with relatively little dialogue, and to have the visuals come first.

After some delays, the project was finally greenlit in the early 2000s. 20th Century Fox agreed to distribute the film, with Mel Gibson intending to play the character one last time. Gibson also suggested to Miller that the role of Imperator Furiosa should be given to Sigourney Weaver, with whom he had a great collaboration in The Year of Living Dangerously. So Miller and Gibson were preparing to make an epic swan song for the character.

But then, 9/11 happened. Miller said that this caused "the American dollar [to collapse] against the Australian dollar, and our budget ballooned", and there were also security concerns and tightened travel and shipping restrictions during the lead up to the Iraq War, which caused issues with the proposed Namibian shoot. Miller decided to pause the project and focus on Happy Feet, while Gibson went on to develop other projects. By the time he was done with Happy Feet, Miller still found problems with the film, particularly Gibson's image collapsing amidst controversy. Miller also decided Gibson outgrew the character, feeling that this franchise wasn't about "an old road warrior." In 2007, Miller finally confirmed that Gibson would not play the title character anymore, but still intended to make the film.

For the title character, Armie Hammer, Jeremy Renner, Michael Fassbender, Joel Kinnaman, Heath Ledger, Eric Bana, and Eminem were considered, with Hammer and Renner considered finalists. After some auditions, Tom Hardy was selected to play the title role in 2010. Miller made it clear that he planned to shoot two films back to back: Fury Road and Furiosa, but production issues forced him to focus on one film for the moment.

Filming finally started in July 2012, and it did not wrap till December 2013. There were many problems on set. One of these included a momentary pause in production, as the film's budget rose and they were forced to wrap before filming a single scene in the Citadel. A change of leadership at WB later allowed production to continue and the missing scenes be filmed.

There were tensions between Hardy and Theron. Hardy would show up late to set frequently, disrupting the shooting schedule, and his method acting annoyed the crew members. Theron says she went into “Survival mode,” wanting to get through each sequence and onto the next, while Hardy wanted more explanation, more motivation, more character insight, and more time spent on every scene. Since then, Theron conceded that the film's workplace environment could have been more constructive, while Miller admitted that he wishes he had done more to ensure the comfort of his actors and less to safeguard his artistic vision.

One of the key reasons behind Hardy's behavior is that he was not content with the film. He wasn't given any explanation on Miller's vision, and struggled to connect with the story and character. After watching the final film, he issued an apology to Miller, calling him brilliant. WB was also frustrated with the budget going up, so they sent producer Denise di Novi to keep track of the film and find out what was happening.

After delays, Fury Road hit theaters in May 2015. It debuted with $45 million, Miller's highest ever debut. It legged out to $154 million domestically and $380 million worldwide, easily the franchise's highest film. Nevertheless, due to its high $150 million budget, it wasn't exactly a box office hit. The good news is that the film was massive on home media, eventually breaking even.

The film earned universal acclaim. It was named as one of the best films of 2015, as well as one of the greatest action films ever made. It became an awards darling, earning 10 Oscar noms, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won 6: Best Film Editing, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing. Miller was back.

• Budget: $150,000,000.

• Domestic gross: $154,280,290. ($207.6 million adjusted)

• Worldwide gross: $380,437,267.

Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

"What would you wish for?"

His 11th film. Based on the 1994 short story The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye by A. S. Byatt, it stars Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton. It follows a djinn who is unleashed from a bottle by a professor and tells her stories from his thousands of years of existence.

The film was a gigantic box office failure, earning just $20 million against its $60 million budget. It received generally positive reviews for its visuals, but mixed reactions for its thin story.

• Budget: $60,000,000.

• Domestic gross: $8,286,741. ($9 million adjusted)

• Worldwide gross: $20,282,422.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

"Fury is born."

His 12th film. The fifth installment in the Mad Max franchise, and a spinoff prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, it stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke and Alyla Browne. Set years before the events of Fury Road, the film follows Furiosa's life for over a decade, from her kidnapping by the forces of warlord Dementus to her ascension to the rank of Imperator.

While developing Fury Road, Miller created backstories for all characters, particularly Imperator Furiosa. Miller and Lathouris eventually wrote a Furiosa-centered screenplay, which actress Charlize Theron used as a reference for her performance in Fury Road. Originally, he wanted to film Fury Road and Furiosa back-to-back, but felt that this was not feasible. Nevertheless, he said he would definitely make the film if Fury Road was a success.

But in 2017, there was a problem that stalled development. Miller sued Warner Bros. over a Fury Road salary dispute; he was promised a $7 million bonus if the film did not cost more than $157 million. The final budget was $150 million, but WB claims it cost $185 million. The issue wasn't settled till 2020, and Miller finally started working on Furiosa.

Miller didn't want to use de-aging technology, so Theron was no tasked to be back in the title role. Miller chose Anya Taylor-Joy after seeing her performance in an early cut of the film Last Night in Soho, with director Edgar Wright telling Miller to "do yourself a favor and grab the opportunity to work with her". Chris Hemsworth was a big fan of the films and unsuccessfully applied to play Max in Fury Road, but convinced Miller to give him the role of Dementus. Originally, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was cast as Praetorian Jack, but he was forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts, being replaced by Tom Burke.

Miller stated that this was an easier shoot than Fury Road, alluding to the latter's troubled production, and complimented WB's new leadership for implementing an "approach to filmmaking [that was] much more collaborative than it was adversarial". Taylor-Joy praised Miller's commitment to safety on set, but said that working on the film was, nonetheless, a challenging experience. With just 30-odd spoken lines of dialogue, she would go "months" on the film's set without speaking a single word on camera, feeling isolated. When asked what proved more difficult than she expected on the set, the actress said: "Next question, sorry. Talk to me in 20 years."

The film earned critical acclaim, widely considered a worthy follow-up to Fury Road. Sadly, this success was not the same for its box office numbers. The film opened with a very weak $26 million and closed with just $67 million domestically and $174 million worldwide, barely above its $168 million and ranking as one of the biggest flops of the year.

• Budget: $168,000,000.

• Domestic gross: $67,475,791. ($68.8 million adjusted)

• Worldwide gross: $174,175,791.

Unrealized Projects

He had a lot of projects that he never got to make, although some here actually saw the light of the day through other directors.

• Contact: WB hired Miller to direct the film, based on the story by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan. WB hoped that the film could be released by Christmas 1996, but after Miller kept delaying the production for rewrites, they fired him and replaced him with Robert Zemeckis.

• A Day with Wilbur Robinson: Miller turned down the chance to direct an adaptation of the book. The film would later be made with Disney under the title Meet the Robinsons.

• Justice League: Mortal: In 2007, Miller was hired to make the first ever Justice League debut in the big screen, with a $220 million budget. After some auditions, he found his cast: D. J. Cotrona as Superman, Armie Hammer as Batman, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman, Common as John Stewart/Green Lantern, Adam Brody as The Flash, Teresa Palmer as Talia al Ghul, and Jay Baruchel as the lead villain, Maxwell Lord. However, the 2007-08 WGA strike paused development, and the success of The Dark Knight led to WB deciding to put the film on hold and pursue different options.

• The Odyssey: Miller teamed up with Brad Pitt on an adaptation of Homer's Odyssey... but set in space. It never materialized.

• Akira: He was attached to direct a live-action remake, but chose to focus on Fury Road instead.

The Future

Miller said that he was hoping to film a new Mad Max film, The Wasteland, a prequel focusing on Max. While there's already a lot of source material, it still doesn't have a script. After Furiosa's weak numbers, Tom Hardy said he doesn't believe the film will happen. In February 2025, Miller stated in an interview that he was still interested in making the film despite Furiosa's underperformance at the box office and would do so if given permission by WB, but admitted that he wanted to focus on two other projects first.

FILMS (FROM HIGHEST GROSSING TO LEAST GROSSING)

Across those 12 films, he made $1,587,112,500 worldwide. That's $132,259,375 per film.

The Verdict

Despite making some iconic films, Miller's track record is very inconsistent.

The original Mad Max trilogy was a big success, launching his career (and Mel Gibson's). He also found success with The Witches of Eastwick and Happy Feet, even getting to win an Oscar for the latter. And Fury Road was in the middle of the road; not a hit, but also not a flop. While stuff like Lorenzo's Oil, Babe: Pig in the City, Happy Feet Two, Three Thousand Years of Longing and Furiosa ranked among their years' biggest box office flops. Now that's what I call balance.

Regardless, Miller is a very fantastic filmmaker. Making Fury Road and Furiosa at his age is incredibly impressive. You can see from his body of work that he is not repetitive nor stays in the same genre forever. Even his family films can get quite dark. Babe: Pig in the City is quite a crazy film, including a scene where a dog says "a murderer's shadow lies hard across my soul". In Happy Feet Two, there's two krills who argue because one has an existential crisis saying "there’s only one of me in all the world. I’m one in a krillion."

It's a shame, then, that we might have just witnessed the last of Mad Max. It'd be a miracle if The Wasteland happened, but it's very unlikely. Nevertheless, it's impressive we got to have five epic films in the span of 45 years, all under the eye of its mastermind. Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.

Hope you liked this edition. You can find this and more in the wiki for this section.

The next director will be Cameron Crowe. In my opinion, he doesn't deserve to be in director's jail.

I asked you to choose who else should be in the run and the comment with the most upvotes would be chosen. Well, we'll later talk about... Bill Condon. Back to Twilight.

This is the schedule for the following four:

Who should be next after Condon? That's up to you. And there's a theme.

Generally, I ask for directors with at least 5+ films to get a write-up. Well, I think I deserve a break, right? So for this occassion, the theme is directors with 4 films or less. But only for directors who are either retired, or that are not directing anymore. I don't want directors who made 3 films but plan on directing more, like Jordan Peele or John Krasinski, etc.