Mad Max 2 and subtitling it "the thrilling predecessor to "The Road Warrior"." Despite the title change, grosses from the US release were on par with other countries. Warner Bros. felt comfortable to keep the title of the third "Mad Max" film, "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome", intact for that film's American release. "Mad Max 2" received positive reviews and is regarded by many critics as one of the best films of 1981. The film holds a 98% rating based on 42 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes with and average rating of 8.4/10 and with the consensus, ""The Road Warrior" is everything a bigger-budgeted Mad
Mad Max 2 concept of the hero", stating that this attempt "makes the film joyless", "sappy", and "sentimental". The film's depiction of a post-apocalyptic future was widely copied by other filmmakers and in science fiction novels, to the point that its gritty "junkyard society of the future look...is almost taken for granted in the modern science-fiction action film." "The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction" says that "Mad Max 2", "with all its comic-strip energy and vividness...is exploitation cinema at its most inventive." Richard Scheib called "Mad Max 2" "one of the few occasions where a sequel makes a dramatic improvement in quality over its