So what does a sad $5.3 million opening film mean to the future of Arnold films? Sabotage, now Arnold's lowest opening weekend film, was the number 7 film at the box office - a far cry from the 20 million dollar opening weekend films he had before he was Governor. Critics, on average, only gave Sabotage a 22% approval rating but Arnold never needed a good review to sell a film in the old days. In the '80s and '90s, the name SCHWARZENEGGER was all it took to bring in an audience so let's think about what went wrong and if Arnold still has a chance at a prosperous future in films.
Let's face it, Sabotage bombed for many reasons:
1. As good as it is and as much as fans love it, it's not an event film. Today's audiences want adventures based on girl books or superhero movies!
2. Arnold's age. He's no spring chicken and although we think he's a legend and invincible, the average movie goer lost interest.
3. Major competition. We all knew Divergent and Noah would crush this film. Sure Sabotage is our number one film but we're outnumbered by those in demand for a well-reviewed biblical story or a teenage film with a huge built-in fan-base. Little did we know that Sabotage would get beaten by Sherman & Mr. Peabody in it's 3rd or 4th week and another round of Muppets.
4. Arnold's absence from films. While Arnold was Governor, he might have pissed off some fans and organizations who now refuse to watch a Schwarzenegger film. If Arnold stayed in movies, he probably would have done some amazing projects during that time which would have kept his star power strong. Alas, Arnold did love his time in office and he did make some nice changes for the better.
5. Sabotage is incredibly bloody and violent. While some thought this may have been what fans wanted, it's generic drug-plot shown in the commercials didn't connect with audiences.
Arnold didn't pick a bad film. Sabotage is one of his best and his acting performance shows he's at the top of his game. We can only hope positive word-of-mouth will generate a lot of interest and also help support huge DVD and Blu-ray sales for the release. Let's hope enthusiastic fans still get to the theaters over the next few weeks and when it's released in May in the UK. Escape Plan did well overseas, let's see how Sabotage plays out and perhaps it may just yet generate a profit.
Don't give up, Arnold fans. Stay in there and keep rooting for your favorite team. I believe team Arnold will still see some glory days. While I have no idea how "Maggie" will do, I feel it will be a big success because the inside word on this zombie drama is that this will be the one that critics may consider Arnold for an Oscar nomination or maybe a repeat win of a Golden Globe. If Maggie does not make a ton of money, it will still most likely be considered as a critically acclaimed success. Then we have two franchise films in a row: Expendables 3 and Terminator 5. Here are two more guaranteed hits! So although we have had 3 domestic box office disappointments in a row, the next 3 films to come should generate big Schwarzenegger success.
Arnold may now need to stick to the franchises or the genres that made him famous. Without doubt, general audiences would BE BACK to see him fight more predators, terminators and barbarians for sure! We still don't hear any love amongst our Arnold fan readers for a Twins sequel and I believe if it gets made and bombs, Universal will pull the plug on King Conan. The smart thing to do would be to follow T5 up with Conan to build up his fan-base and THEN do Twins 2. Or might Conan follow T7? Deadline.com reports Arnold is filming T5, T6 and T7 back-to-back for over nine months straight. If there are three new Terminator films, chances are we'd see a huge Arnold blockbuster every July 4th weekend from 2015 through 2017! We have confirmed this report to be false- for the time being, Arnold is only committed to T5.
In addition to franchise films, If I was Arnold's agent, I'd keep Arnold in the genre that made him famous: Sci-fi, comic heroes and Fantasy! We fell in love in the first place with Arnold's films with the barbarian comic fantasies and science fiction/horror of the Terminator. These are EVENT FILMS, the kinds of motion pictures the entire world wants to see. Prisoners, DEA and sherifs are perhaps a little too generic for mainstream audiences. Horror movies and animated films also do very well so I suggest Arnold could do a voice for a character in a PIXAR film or even has a small part in a horror film. Even if he's not the lead actor, performing in event films will keep him on top! Am I going to have to speak with Arnold's film agent. Come on, let's talk; we can get out of this slump and prepare for an amazing comeback after the sure-fire success of Terminator: Genesis wraps up.
If Expendables 3 and Terminator 5 do very well, we may just yet see our favorite action hero return in King Conan. It's not over until the fat lady sings. And Arnold, a person who inspires millions to get fit and pumped, will never let that lady get fat.