With all of the prime real estate for Summer 2009 occupied, Warner Brothers has decided they’ll just barge onto another studio’s release date with Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. And isn’t it interesting that they’ve targeted the Memorial Day launch of A Night at the Museum 2: Escape from the Smithsonian? That’s a 20th Century Fox release. Maybe this’ll halt that transparent Watchmen shakedown.
Though A Night at the Museum grossed $573 million worldwide, it was also the beneficiary of a weak holiday ’06 slate. Put it up against stronger competition than Charlotte’s Web and Eragon, and… it’d still make enough coin to justify a sequel. But a Memorial Day release? Memorial Day is for event films. It’s for closers. And a franchise centered on Ben Stiller running away from giant museum displays feels a bit soft when compared to the red-meat appeal of The Terminator.
Then again, I’m sure Rambo III’s distributor, TriStar, laughed off the challenge of Crocodile Dundee II back in 1988. But for some odd reason, the Terminator series is much more durable than Sylvester Stallone’s lonely Vietnam vet saga; though the time travel conceit has been reconfigured to the point of incomprehensibility, people love watching the Connor family do battle with cyborgs. And if The Dark Knight does what Warner Brothers thinks it’s going to do this summer, the presence of Christian Bale in Terminator Salvation will mean much, much more than it does right now.
Interestingly, the absence of Schwarzenegger is something of a plus for the McG-directed fourth installment: without a politically-motivated star, the production is free to shoot outside of California. Setting up shop in New Mexico for two months is going to save this production a bundle of money, and those savings will be funneled into the f/x budget. I don’t know what WB is planning to spend on Terminator Salvation, but if they’re gearing up for a second trilogy, that number has to be somewhere in the $200 million range.
A Night at the Museum 2 can’t compete with this. It’s too modest. And every kid over ten will kick and scream for Terminator (even though the popularity of The Sarah Connor Chronicles appears to be waning). Someone’s going to blink.
9 comments
I have to say I'm as surprised as anyone at how much I've liked the Sarah Conner Chronicles. Solid acting, solid cast (mostly), solid fx and it's brutal as hell. I don't care what you guys say, this show is pretty stellar.
Did you just say "solid acting" are you SERIOUS?! It's freakin' cringe-worthy…at the best of times it's just corny. Ep3 has been the ONLY decent one of the lot so far, they've dropped the ball on a few episodes but their House-Style "Terminator Chases us….NOW" repeated storylines are horribly boring…
The tv series has some terrible shit in it for sure but for everything lousy, theres something good or interesting they're developing. Its no worse than Buffy season 1. So I gonna continue to give it a shot. If the 50% of stupid continues in season 2 (if there is one) then I'm gone.
"Its no worse than Buffy season 1"
Buffy season 1 was garbage. But then again, I think all Whedon-produced tripe is such.
I rate the show at 'garbage' bordering on 'feces'. And anyone else think the chick who plays the Terminator on that show has a mild case of Down Syndrome?
When Brian Austin Green starts showing up on your show the end is nay.
Sometimes the lack of common sense in the reporting on this site is head spinning. You guys hate Shawn Levy. Ok, we get it. That doesn't change the fact that Night 2 will be huge. Hell the first one did a ton more business than T3 and T4 will be without it's franchise player. Didn't we just come out of a May in which 3 films all topped $300 million? Both of these films can co-exist. Terminator will not put a dent in Night at the Museum. In fact, I think Night 2 will out gross T4.
honestly, the sarah connor chronicles is a solid show. its finding its footing, give it time. i never bothered seeing a night at the museum, because i hate ben stiller and with the utter box office failure of the heartbreak kid, his star is waning. i agree, terminator has been around forever, people will see it regardless, while i have problems with McG, the movie's got Bale as John Connor, Bale doesn't do crappy movies. and since i haven't heard or seen anything about t4, i'm gonna with hold judgement till the trailer. but i'm all for t4 to smash musuem. i hope fox eats it at the box office for the watchmen crap they're pulling.
I was excited for a second to read that Ben Stiller had taken a role in TERMINATOR 4. It's time he get back to some PERMANENT MIDNIGHT or ZERO EFFECT psuedo-serious territory. They've got to fix this title though. I will accept TERMINATOR: SALVATION: CONFESSIONS OF A TRICKBABY.
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