With dismal box office earnings for Terminator: Dark Fate, all hope for any continued theatrical films has certainly been terminated! No thanks to internet trolls, the Marvel millenials and the early and relentless hate spread by those self-proclaimed Terminator “fan” sites, Terminator: Dark Fate just didn’t stand a chance at success. One of the main reasons the film failed at the box office was that many people saw the film alone (or in very small numbers), ashamed to publicly admit they saw Terminator and to hear the Terminator-shaming that the trolls would unleash upon them. For the haters and the millenials, they feel it is “the cool thing" to denounce Terminator these days.
Terminator: Dark Fate is rated higher by the critics than The Joker and over 80% of fans love this film, yet those naysayers of the Terminator “fan” sites, with their early spoilers and daily negativity, are heavily to blame for audiences to never get another Terminator film EVER again. I’m sure they are proud by their mission to kill the franchise but even if that was the last Terminator theatrical film, and it was, I’m proud of the way the franchise ended. Terminator: Dark Fate gave us thrills, hardcore action and powerful performances.
There is absolutely NO WAY that Terminator can ever come back as theatrical films - at least not for a 20 year break. James Cameron himself coming back as director would not even save The Terminator. Audiences just will NOT give the franchise another chance, however, there are a couple ways we can see how our beloved characters and endoskeletons can make a return. One way is for the Terminator to be picked up as a streaming platform like a Netflix original series. Fans would love to see The Terminator from their own home and if it was to focus more on the Future War, that would be giving fans what they had always dreamed of since 1991.
Another possibility would be for the franchise to merge with another franchise - similarly to Alien Vs Predator. Imagine a huge spectacle of something like The Terminator Vs RoboCop, The Terminator Vs Predators, The Terminator Vs The Matrix. You get thew idea; a merge of franchises is the only way at this point to get audiences excited again to see Terminator on the big screen.
In the meantime, Terminator will always be popular in comic book and video game form as well as merchandise. So from now until a Terminator streaming service production (or a franchise mash-up), we at least have six pretty damn cool Terminator films to rewatch over and over and remember the best of times.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, while only in Terminator: Dark Fate as a strong supporting role, still was top notch. He gave a very powerful and emotional performance and gave us the film’s best lines. I’m not sure how Arnold is taking the box office news but I want him to know I am very proud of this film! Even though Arnold said “I won’t be back” in Dark Fate, never say never. Who knows, Maybe in the series we’ll finally get Arnold as the human soldier that the T-800 was based on? One can dream. Stay positive. Maybe the new slogan is “There’s no fate but what Netflix makes."
