'Terminator: Dark Fate' Box Office Tracking Hints At A Record Opening Weekend For The Franchise
Will Terminator: Dark Fate finally break the curse of terrible Terminator sequels? Every movie in the franchise has been trying, and failing, to live up to the glory of James Cameron's original The Terminator and its sequel Terminator 2: Judgement Day, with disappointing results. But Dark Fate is hoping to change things up with some familiar faces.
James Cameron is back (producing), and Linda Hamilton is returning to the franchise for the first time since T2. And it looks as if all of this might be enough to lure in a crowd – because early Terminator Dark Fate box office tracking indicates the sequel might be headed towards a franchise-best opening weekend.
Are you excited for Terminator: Dark Fate? If so, you're not alone. Deadline is saying that early box office projections for the new sequel/reboot are pretty darn good, with the Tim Miller-directed flick looking at a potential $40-plus million opening weekend. That puts it on track to break previous franchise record holder, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which opened at $44 million.
Dark Fate is following a similar path as the 2018 box office hit Halloween. David Gordon Green's horror sequel/reboot brought back the franchise's original heroine and also opted to ignore all the sequels. Dark Fate brings back Sarah Connor and ignores every Terminator sequel after Judgement Day, enabling Tim Miller and James Cameron to make something more akin to a direct sequel to T2.
Whether or not the general public knows that is up for debate. But the marketing has been sure to slap James Cameron's name everywhere, and I wouldn't be surprised if casual moviegoers thought Cameron was back in the director's chair even though he's just producing (he also played a part in shaping the story, so there's that). The reunion of Cameron, Hamilton, and Arnold Schwarzenegger might trigger enough nostalgia in audiences to ensure that Dark Fate ends up with a winning weekend. There are even some projections stating that Dark Fight could go as high as $60 million, but that seems overly generous.
In Terminator: Dark Fate, "Sarah Connor and a hybrid cyborg human must protect a young girl from a newly modified liquid Terminator from the future." The film stars Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes, Gabriel Luna, and Diego Boneta. Look for Terminator: Dark Fate in theaters November 1, 2019.