The Insane Failure Of Dark Fate Is Turning Heads

As promised, the Terminator franchise came back... but it didn't arrive to the kind of financial success that studio Paramount Pictures was hoping for.

Terminator: Dark Fate, the sixth entry into the Terminator film series that acts as a direct sequel to 1984's Terminator and 1991's Terminator: Judgment Day, opened in theaters on Friday, November 1 to dismal box office returns. Despite having James Cameron back on board as a producer, Deadpool director Tim Miller behind the helm, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton in their respective roles as the T-800 Terminator and the gun-toting badass Sarah Connor, and a host of intriguing new characters in the mix, Dark Fate sadly lived up to its name facing a dark fate by earning just $29 million domestically and $94.6 million internationally over its opening weekend. That's not good for a franchise trying so desperately to redeem itself.

With a total debut pull of $123.6 million, Terminator: Dark Fate hasn't come close to recouping its reported production budget of $185 million, which doesn't include the cost of marketing and distribution. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this means that Dark Fate could end up costing Paramount Pictures, Skydance Media, and the now-shuttered 20th Century Fox more than $120 million. Each company is said to have financed 30 percent of the film's budget, which works out to about $55.5 million a pop. The remaining 10 percent of Dark Fate's production budget is on the line at the Chinese conglomerate Tencent Holdings.

THR details the worst-case scenario for Terminator: Dark Fate as costing its financiers $130 million in the event that the film loses its overseas traction and winds up flopping. A source close to the outlet has indicated that the better-case scenario is that Paramount, Skydance, Fox owner Disney, and Tencent may end up eating only $110 million if Dark Fate, quote, "does have strong legs offshore." Still, Variety reports that Terminator: Dark Fate is looking at a worldwide take-home of only $180 million to $200 million dollars, and that the film would need to earn around $450 million total just to break even.

It would be simple to say that Dark Fate tanked at the box office because critics and fans absolutely hated it and think it's a massive piece of garbage, but that would be a lie. It seems a big reason why Terminator: Dark Fate tanked financially isn't because everyone thinks the film is horrible. Rather, it appears that the films that preceded Dark Fate the much-derided Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Salvation, and Terminator Genisys, all of which Dark Fate actually ignores were so bad that people aren't giving the new movie a chance. Fewer people heading out to theaters naturally means less revenue, and it looks as though this is the situation in which Dark Fate is currently stuck. Keep watching the video to see the insane failure of Dark Fate is turning heads.

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