Terminator: Dark Fate is in theaters, and despite the badass return of Linda Hamilton, the movie is set to lose big at the box office.
The Terminator franchise is a bizarre one. There are several movies in the franchise, but apart from the first two movies, it seems it has always struggled a bit to find consistent, widespread love from fans.
However, in Terminator: Dark Fate, the franchise was rewritten a bit and brought back Linda Hamilton, the badass star of Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Dark Fate was going to reset the timeline in a similar fashion to the Halloween franchise, ignoring every other Terminator movie but Terminator and T2. But despite this return to the basics, the movie has still floundered at the box office.
As Variety reports, unless something massive happens, Terminator: Dark Fate is on track to lose a whopping $100 million at the box office. The film only opened in North America on November 1, but the movie only brought in $29 million in opening weekend ticket sales. It did rake in $102 million overseas, but considering the film’s jaw-dropping $185 million budget, the box office performance is quite underwhelming.
So what does this mean for the franchise? It’s unclear, but things don’t look great. However, despite the lack of ticket sales, Dark Fate got fair reviews, earning a B+ Cinemascore and a 69% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
However, pairing that fan and critic reaction to the largely panned previous films in the franchise, Terminator Salvation in 2009 and Terminator Genisys in 2015, things don’t look great for the continuation of the franchise. After all, if Genisys, an alternate timeline story starring beloved Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke doesn’t work, and Dark Fate, a return to the original story and original stars doesn’t draw fans in, what will?
Variety spoke with Eric Handler, a media analyst with MKM Partners, who didn’t have a lot of hope for the franchise. He said, “This is an aging franchise with aging actors, and the reviews were mediocre. As good of a franchise as this might have been, it doesn’t have the same appeal now.”
It’s unfortunate to see the series not find traction, especially with Dark Fate featuring three female leads, one of which is over 60 and kicking a ton of ass (something we very rarely in the mainstream sci-fi and action genres). However, there is still time for Dark Fate to make some serious waves in the box office, and through merchandise and digital download sales, so we will have to wait and see what the final word is on the future of the Terminator franchise.
Source: Variety
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