James Cameron shares why ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ tanked at box office
The Avatar director has revealed what he thinks led to Terminator: Dark Fate underperforming at the box office. The action sequel is the sixth instalment in the Terminator franchise, directed by Tim Miller with James Cameron as producer. Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising their roles as Sarah Connor and the Terminator.
Cameron, who directed the successful first and second Terminator films, shared his thoughts on the project making $261 million at the box office and losing $120 million. In an interview with Deadline, Cameron stated that despite initial creative differences during production, he was “reasonably happy with the film”.
“Tim and I had our battles, and we’ve both spoken about that, but the crazy thing is we’re still pals,” the filmmaker added. “Which is weird. I liked him before the movie, didn’t like him very much during the movie, and I like him now, and I think he feels the same way.”
“I think the problem, and I’m going to wear this one, is that I refused to do it without Arnold,” Cameron said. “Tim didn’t want Arnold, but I said, ‘Look, I don’t want that. Arnold and I have been friends for 40 years, and I could hear it, and it would go like this: ‘Jim, I can’t believe you’re making a Terminator movie without me.’”
As a result of bringing back both Schwarzenegger and Hamilton, the director said the sequel would only appeal to older viewers who grew up watching Terminator and its 1991 sequel Terminator 2. Cameron added: “It just didn’t mean that much to me to do it, but I said, ‘If you guys could see your way clear to bringing Arnold back and then, you know, I’d be happy to be involved.’”
However, the filmmaker specified how the inclusion of the original cast led to complications with audience attraction: “And then Tim wanted Linda. I think what happened is I think the movie could have survived having Linda in it, I think it could have survived having Arnold in it, but when you put Linda and Arnold in it and then, you know, she’s 60-something, he’s 70-something, all of a sudden it wasn’t your Terminator movie, it wasn’t even your dad’s Terminator movie, it was your granddad’s Terminator movie. And we didn’t see that.”
Cameron added: “We loved it; we thought it was cool, you know, that we were making this sort of direct sequel to a movie that came out in 1991. And young moviegoing audiences weren’t born. They wouldn’t even have been born for another ten years. So it was just our own myopia. We kind of got a little high on our own supply, and I think that’s the lesson there.”
However, Terminator: Dark Fate became one of the biggest box-office bombs of all time, which led to the cancellation of any future Terminator films. Cameron is now promoting his latest film, Avatar: The Way of Water, the long-awaited sequel to his 2009 box-office hit Avatar.
This sequel looks like one of the most expensive films ever made. Cameron shared what attracted him to work on such a project: “I’m attracted by difficult. Difficult is a fucking magnet for me. I go straight to difficult. And I think it probably goes back to this idea that there are lots of smart, really gifted, really talented filmmakers out there that just can’t do the difficult stuff. So that gives me a tactical edge to do something nobody else has ever seen because the really gifted people don’t fucking want to do it.”
Avatar: The Way of Water hits theatres Friday, December 16th.
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