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Terminator: Dark Fate Bombs With $29 Million Opening Weekend
Terminator: Dark Fate is officially a box office bomb, bringing in only $29 million during its opening weekend. After multiple failed attempts to revive the iconic sci-fi property, Hollywood decided to take another stab at it with Dark Fate. What set this one apart was the fact it featured the return of Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, and James Cameron was onboard as a producer. The hope was by positioning Dark Fate as a direct sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day (ignoring the events of the previous three films), it would yield better results.
Critically, that turned out to be true, as Dark Fate was hailed as a return to form for the franchise. Commercially is an entirely different matter. Box office projections heading into the weekend were very low, and Dark Fate did not get off to the best start during its Thursday night preview screenings. Unfortunately for those involved, this will ultimately go down as the next Terminator misstep.
According to The Wrap, Dark Fate grossed about $29 million in its first three days. That figure is just above the $27 million debut for Terminator Genisys, the 2015 reboot that performed so poorly, its planned sequels were cancelled. Even more concerning is that Dark Fate couldn't even top the unadjusted opening for Judgment Day, which opened to $31.7 million back in 1991. That Dark Fate won the weekend will come as little solace.
Since Dark Fate boasted an $185 million production budget (a number considerably higher than a couple of MCU movies this year), co-financiers Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Skydance, and Tencent were obviously hoping for a much bigger turnout. As was the case with Terminator Salvation and Genisys, the idea behind Dark Fate was to use it as a springboard for a new trilogy, taking the Force Awakens route as a legacy sequel. It is highly unlikely those planned followups happen now. Dark Fate earned $101.9 million globally, meaning it still has a long way to go before it approaches the realm of profitability. And with plenty of other high-profile offerings coming out over the rest of November, odds are Dark Fate will slide down the charts the next few weeks and will probably lose money.
With this being the third consecutive unsuccessful Terminator relaunch, a very convincing case can be made it's time to let this particular property die instead of trying to force something the public does not have any interest in. There's no denying the original two Terminator movies are bona fide sci-fi classics that have long staked their place in film history, but the brand is tarnished beyond repair at this point. Terminator is clearly not on the same level of the MCU or Star Wars in regards to general appeal and box office prowess. If Linda Hamilton reuniting with Arnold Schwarzenegger can't get people to the theater, then there doesn't appear to be anything else to do.
