"The Garfield Movie" is a kitty with claws it seems ... 'cause the movie's taking out the competition left and right at the box office -- including "Mad Max: Furiosa."

The animated family film will eek out the top spot at the box office this weekend, according to Deadline ... beating out "Mad Max: Furiosa" $13 million to $11.5 million.

Last weekend, almost went the cat's way too ... though ultimately 'MM:F' took the top spot $32.3 million to $31.2 million -- paltry totals for both flicks but especially bad for 'Furiosa' with its huge production and advertising budgets.

Don't imagine 'Garfield' producers are celebrating yet though ... 'cause the whole box office is kinda in shambles right now. $13 million ain't a good total for a movie's second weekend, and the flick's still got a long way to go to recoup its budget.

Not even the amazing cast of 'TGM' has been able to bring in a huge start for the film ... despite boasting Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Nicholas Hoult, Ving Rhames, Cecily Strong and Snoop Dogg, among others.

John Krasinski's "IF" has slowly but surely made some money -- in the same "The Garfield Movie" might ... 'cause Deadline says kid movies have great staying powers.

That said, Pixar's "Inside Out 2" comes out in two weeks ... and, it's gonna be hard for any animated flick to compete with the Mouse House juggernaut.

Basically, back-to-back poor showings from pretty much everything at the box office may have some studios eating their weight in comfort lasagna.