diff --git a/package/ffmpeg/ffmpeg.mk b/package/ffmpeg/ffmpeg.mk
index a816ceac29..91e7fa979a 100644
--- a/package/ffmpeg/ffmpeg.mk
+++ b/package/ffmpeg/ffmpeg.mk
@@ -449,12 +449,17 @@ else
 FFMPEG_CONF_OPTS += --disable-pic
 endif
 
-ifneq ($(call qstrip,$(BR2_GCC_TARGET_CPU)),)
+# Default to --cpu=generic for MIPS architecture, in order to avoid a
+# warning from ffmpeg's configure script.
+ifeq ($(BR2_mips)$(BR2_mipsel)$(BR2_mips64)$(BR2_mips64el),y)
+FFMPEG_CONF_OPTS += --cpu=generic
+else ifneq ($(call qstrip,$(BR2_GCC_TARGET_CPU)),)
 FFMPEG_CONF_OPTS += --cpu=$(BR2_GCC_TARGET_CPU)
 else ifneq ($(call qstrip,$(BR2_GCC_TARGET_ARCH)),)
 FFMPEG_CONF_OPTS += --cpu=$(BR2_GCC_TARGET_ARCH)
 endif
 
+
 FFMPEG_CONF_OPTS += $(call qstrip,$(BR2_PACKAGE_FFMPEG_EXTRACONF))
 
 # Override FFMPEG_CONFIGURE_CMDS: FFmpeg does not support --target and others