Major Flop?! 'Terminator: Dark Fate' Failed Despite Big Opening Weekend
Fans seemed to say "Hasta La Vista" back to "Terminator: Dark Fate," as ticket buyers became uninterested in watching the 35-year-old science-fiction franchise.
The reappearance of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton did not contribute a lot in this year's return of the Terminator franchise. The introduction of twists and turns (as well as memorable Terminator lines made fresh for the sequel) did not also excite fans.
Despite being tagged as the "second best" sequel with "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" being the first, the film only earned $29 million in its opening weekend.
According to Kyle Davies, the president of Domestic Distribution of Paramount Pictures, they were expecting at least $40 million, but the sales expectations still fell 30 percent far from their expected pre-release sales. The film bagged the first place of highest-grossing films for the week despite the failure though.
"But we are proud of the movie. It truly delivers big action and big thrills. We tried to understand and honor what the fans wanted," Davies added.
The film had a $185 million budget, per reports of Variety. The film also spent $80 million to $100 million in worldwide marketing and fees.
Co-financed with Skydance and Disney, Paramount pictures led the team by putting 30 percent of the budget each. The remaining 10 percent belonged to Tencent from China.
Compared to "Terminator Genisys" and "Terminator Salvation" which both received terrible reviews, "Terminator: Dark Fate" still offered something different that made it better than the two -- though it was already called a flop by most critics.
Per Rotten Tomatoes, the "Dark Fate" earned 70 percent critic score while the "Genisys" and "Terminator Salvation" only got 27 percent and 22 percent respectively.
Not only the movie received a bad review. Even T-800 actor Schwarzenegger rarely made a hit since he left the office as California governor in 2011. With over 10 action movies within the past years since his comeback, only the "Escape Plan" with Sylvester Stallone passed the taste of the viewers.
In an interview with Deadline in August 2018, James Cameron, the producer of the film, announced that the franchise could take-off a new trilogy if "Dark Fate" would be able to perform well at the box office. But looking at its rocky start, the chances of releasing another movie became slimmer now even the movie is still in its first week.
It could also possibly lose around $100 million if the ticket sales would remain low.
Maybe not all 1980s movies can be worthy to gamble in Hollywood these days.
