It couldn’t even crack $90 million at the domestic box office, it’s the worst performing of all "The Terminator" sequels, and critics roasted it over the coals, and yet, Paramount has been mum about the the future of the series following "Terminator: Genisys." A sequel is still slated for May 19, 2017 and there’s lots of time left for executives to make a decision either way about whether or not they’ll press forward, but this latest news from overseas has to be somewhat heartening.
‘Genisys’ opened in China this weekend where it nabbed the fourth biggest debut ever for an American film in the country. The $27.4 million single day haul put it behind "Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen," "Avengers: Age Of Ultron," and "Furious 7." Basically, it’s in some very good blockbuster company. ‘Genisys’ also beat the preview screening and single day grosses of the billion dollar hit of "Jurassic World."
READ MORE: 7 Ways ‘Terminator: Genisys’ Is Everything That’s Wrong With Movies
All that being said, it remains to be seen if the movie can sustain itself in cinemas over the next few weeks, but it does seem like at the very least, ‘Genisys’ has a good shot at surpassing "Terminator Salvation" in overall grosses. In many ways, Paramount is in the same boat as Fox with "Fantastic Four." Part of this equation involves using the rights to the series while they can, because in 2019, they’ll revert back to James Cameron. But will the investment in a sequel that perhaps no one will want to see be worth it just to play out the property before it falls back into Cameron’s hands?
It’ll be interesting to see how Paramount handles the situation but you can bet the studio execs are watching these overseas numbers closely. That’s where the meat of box office dollars are anyway these days, and if the T-800 is still showing signs of life, they may just roll the dice one more time on "The Terminator." [Forbes]
