Weekend Box Office: ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ Wins Its Opening, But Likely Won’t Be Back
The first two movies in the franchise devoted to The Terminator have scored incredibly high, and Arnold Schwarzenegger had a lot to do with that. The third film in the series wasn’t great, but fans still enjoyed it. After two lackluster sequels, the saga detailing machines taking over the planet has returned to dominance, but a good film such as Terminator: Dark Fate didn’t bring about much monetary success at the box office the first weekend of November 2019.
As reported by Box Office Mojo, Terminator: Dark Fate disappointed on Friday with an estimated $10.6 million on its first day. Things really didn’t improve much over the weekend as it only pulled in an estimated $29 million over the course of its entire opening few days.
Yes, that was enough to take the top spot at the box office, but it is seen as a huge disappointment for the movie from Paramount Pictures.
Terminator: Dark Fate was already highly anticipated as soon as it was revealed that Arnie and Linda Hamilton were returning to the franchise. Adding to that was director Tim Miller ignoring the three films after Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and creating a direct sequel to the two best films in the series.
Dark Fate has actually moved up the franchise with the quality of the movie as it is currently rated 69 percent fresh by Rotten Tomatoes. That is so much better than Terminator: Salvation (33 percent) or Terminator: Genisys (27 percent) which almost put a nail in the coffin of the franchise.
#TerminatorDarkFate is a return to #Fresh form for the franchise. pic.twitter.com/DwIKGClT5i
— Rotten Tomatoes (@RottenTomatoes) November 3, 2019
There were a few other films opening this weekend, and they didn’t do all that badly.
The biopic Harriet, Motherless Brooklyn, and the animated Arctic Dogs all landed in the top 10 of a rather weak box office time of year. Things won’t really start to heat up again until it gets a bit closer to Thanksgiving and the Christmas season after that.
Here is the full top ten at the box office for the weekend of November 1-3, 2019:
1.) Terminator: Dark Fate – $29.0 million
2.) Joker – $13.925 million
3.) Maleficent: Mistress of Evil – $12.175 million
4.) Harriet – $12.0 million
5.) The Addams Family – $8.499 million
6.) Zombieland 2: Double Tap – $7.35 million
7.) Countdown – $5.85 million
8.) Black and Blue – $4.05 million
9.) Motherless Brooklyn – $3.65 million
10.) Arctic Dogs – $3.1 million
A $29 million haul at the box office in your opening weekend is nothing to be disappointed in, but Paramount was expecting much more. Terminator: Dark Fate was really something that people thought would do much better due to the return of James Cameron as producer. If the film doesn’t bounce back from its slow start, this could honestly be an end to the power of the machines.
