5 reasons why Terminator Salvation failed at the box office

[turtlepower73]

we needed female nudity..

 

[jedibear]

Here's my "disclaimer" right up front...I hate this thread title...I'm so tired of movies being treated like a horse race where it's only "success" is measured in the opening weekend and how fast it rakes in money. But I understand, that's the reality these days...

I'll play along with these points and add my take...

1) no arnold schwarzenegger.

There's some surface merit to this point...to the average movie-goer, the Terminator movies are Arnold movies. so it was a major hurdle to overcome.

2) Terminator 3.
Again, a somewhat valid point...T3 was the first post-Cameron film in the series and it did play more like a "greatest hits" of Terminator moments than an actual new story...franchise fatigue was setting in a bit here...


3) the McG stigma.
I think this "issue" only had relevance with the more hardcore fan community. I don't think the average movie goer made the connection...how or why would they unless it was spelled out for them in ads or whatnot?



4) the internet and word-of-mouth.
The instant "word-of-mouth" that the internet provides is certainly a player here, but again moreso with the fan base than anyone else. So-called regular WOM like one may hear at work or wherever is probably a lot kinder...I know what I've heard is. I think if this movie is given a little time in the theaters, it may have some "legs" as people go check it out after seeing the other flavors of the week and come away liking it.


5) the PG-13 rating.
I think this issue has almost zero impact on this movie's "failure", in fact it may add to any success by broadening the potential audience. I think the movie hits it's marks just fine without going too deep into "R" territory...

Failure? Over 90 million in a week...I don't call that a failure...

 

[tylerdurden]

I thought the film failed because of the Christen Bales "rant". I haven't seen the movie and regardless of the rating or Arnold, I'll wait for the DVD.

I'm afraid to read the post here due to spoilers, but I'm surprised everyone hates it. I was told it was awesome and the story worked out perfect with the other films. And the Star Trek film had alot of holes in its story, but I'll have to wait and see.

don't worry nasedo. i kept my article relatively spoiler-free. it's a discussion more abt the movie's performance at the box office rather than the movie itself.

bear in mind this movie hasnt even been released in europe. america is not the world. it makes money from other countries too...

very true. in the end, they will very likely proceed with the sequel. the problem/upside is, they'll be more careful with the budget and hopefully the script. the fact is, salvation was a STRIKE picture, meaning the script was greatly affected by the screenwriter's strike last year. so when the movie's "blueprint" fell apart, everything else kinda followed.

we needed female nudity..

i suppose we'll see moon bloodgood's topless scene in the dvd. expect sales to be brisk. ahem.

Here's my "disclaimer" right up front...I hate this thread title...I'm so tired of movies being treated like a horse race where it's only "success" is measured in the opening weekend and how fast it rakes in money. But I understand, that's the reality these days...


Failure? Over 90 million in a week...I don't call that a failure...

jedibear, don't get me wrong. the title is not meant as a judgement on the movie's quality. i was simply discussing its failure from the financial aspect.

and it didn't make $90 million in 1 week. it made $53 million in 1 week, then a huge 63% drop off in the 2nd week for a total of 90mil. that's an abysmal plunge for a movie that cost so much to make and promote.

and yes, i agree it;s sad that a movie's "quality" tends to be jedged mainly by its box office performance nowadays.

good counterarguments u made tho. some of my friends don't think the rating had much impact. but to me it was 2-prong: it was a psychological effect on people who saw the rating as a cop-out, therefore impacting their opinion of the movie even before seeing it. of which there are a lot, and not just fanboys. even average folk like my colleagues who aren't hardcore filmbuffs. the 2nd prong is the approach in the moviemaking. the violence was defintely compromised. there isn't real sense of peril for any of the characters cos the damage/injuries they sustain are mostly implied rather than shown. i feel that for a movie like this, there has to be a certain visceral quality to make u fear for the characters. it was missing here.

 

[gabberjawa]

Failure? Over 90 million in a week...I don't call that a failure...

Isn't that entirely dependent on its budget?


Terminator Salvation cost $200 million

 

[EVILFACE]

Failure? Over 90 million in a week...I don't call that a failure...

I'm sure it was expected to do far more than it's 200 mil budget.

 

[plasmid303]

Isn't that entirely dependent on its budget?


Terminator Salvation cost $200 million

It'll make money internationally. They love Terminator.

 

[Devil_666]

bear in mind this movie hasnt even been released in europe. america is not the world. it makes money from other countries too...

And? It's an American made movie, so it's success first and foremost is judge off how it does in AMERICA. Foreign films aren't judged off how they do here, and vice versa. There's been plenty of Hollywood movies that bombed here and were considered box office failures that went on to make money overseas. Even made a profit. But that doesn't change the fact that it's still considered a failure. Here.

 

[gabberjawa]

It'll make money internationally. They love Terminator.

Course it will... every movie makes money internationally. But will it make enough. 'We' love the terminator just as much as 'they' do. Just not the half-assed ones.



Of course, my stance is that international grosses definitely matter. The bean counters don't care where the money is coming from. If a (franchise-able) movie made $1 here and a billion overseas, it's getting 5 more sequels.

That said, I don't believe Terminator: S will make enough to where the studio will comfortably proceed with a sequel. $16 mil second weekend, and the sinking will continue this week.

 

[tylerdurden]

Of course, my stance is that international grosses definitely matter. The bean counters don't care where the money is coming from. If a (franchise-able) movie made $1 here and a billion overseas, it's getting 5 more sequels.

That said, I don't believe Terminator: S will make enough to where the studio will comfortably proceed with a sequel. $16 mil second weekend, and the sinking will continue this week.

correct. profits are profits. and in fact, the proportion of box office profits for many american-made movies nowadays depend greatly on foreign grosses. japan is a huge market, and arnold is still very popular there. i heard the "unofficial" marketing tried to play up arnie's cameo, to drum up more interest. china is also slowly gaining momentum as a big market, tho dvd piracy is still too prevalent. and of course, europe is huge, with the uk, germany and france leading the way.

i don't believe salvation has enough legs to see it thru for the next few weeks. at the moment it doesn't have any major new releases to steal yet more market share, except maybe "land of the lost" n "the hangover". but those aren't expected to be huge moneymakers anyway. until transformers 2 arrives. then salvation is truly dead in the water.

 

[devilof76]

It may be a bit late in the thread for this to have the impact it should, but it failed at the box office...because it sucked.

 

[tylerdurden]

It may be a bit late in the thread for this to have the impact it should, but it failed at the box office...because it sucked.

"aaaakkkk!! sorry, wrong answer hans! would u like to try for double jeopardy, where the scores could really change?"


lots of movies that sucked much worse made tonnes of money at the box office.

 

[devilof76]

Hmmm...maybe it was because they didn't suck out loud?

 

[Khev]

It'll make money internationally. They love Terminator.

Hey where'd you get that Cameron quote in your sig? Is it from an interview I can find online? I want to see what he had to say.

 

[tylerdurden]

Hmmm...maybe it was because they didn't suck out loud?

how exactly does a movie "suck out loud", i wonder?
i mean, assuming it's not a PORN movie (then it's obvious).

 

[devilof76]

To suck out loud is to be blatantly awful, as opposed to being more subtle in how bad a thing is. Some things that suck manage to sneak under the radar, but some you can hear coming a mile away.

 

[Sweet Rabbit]

correct. profits are profits. and in fact, the proportion of box office profits for many american-made movies nowadays depend greatly on foreign grosses. japan is a huge market, and arnold is still very popular there. i heard the "unofficial" marketing tried to play up arnie's cameo, to drum up more interest. china is also slowly gaining momentum as a big market, tho dvd piracy is still too prevalent. and of course, europe is huge, with the uk, germany and france leading the way.

i don't believe salvation has enough legs to see it thru for the next few weeks. at the moment it doesn't have any major new releases to steal yet more market share, except maybe "land of the lost" n "the hangover". but those aren't expected to be huge moneymakers anyway. until transformers 2 arrives. then salvation is truly dead in the water.

don't forget half blood prince

 

[tylerdurden]

don't forget half blood prince

yeah that too.

 

[DinoLast]

The Theater was packed at a UK cinema I went to last night.
I think that it will scrape past the 200 million mark thanks to the foreign box office.
I also think it will find it's feet on Blu-ray, DVD and VOD
For the sequel to truly have an impact they to have Cameron on board

 

[devilof76]

They might also consider making John Connor the main character, or something.

 

[The Mike]

we needed female nudity..

To make the "We liked what we saw" comment make any sense yes. Especially since it was filmed. Of course that would have pushed it past an PG13. The Irony of that is anyone remember Sixteen Candles? A PG movie where you saw full frontal nudity of a girl in the shower. Ahhh....the 80s.