Those Terminator: Genisys EW covers from 2014 feel like some sort of Arrested Development gag that wandered into the real world. The covers featured first looks at the cast members of this title, including Matt Smith, Jai Courtney, and Emilia Clarke, all wielding guns in unintentionally comical fashions. Accompanying these various covers was text proclaiming that Genisys would show “how to save a billion-dollar franchise.” Cue the Ron Howard narrator from Arrested Development softly saying, “But it wouldn’t save that franchise.”
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Not only did Terminator: Genisys (which is celebrating its tenth anniversary) not save the Terminator saga, it pretty much killed all longevity or goodwill for the Terminator brand name. In 1991, T2: Judgement Day broke box office records; 24 years later, Genisys solidified that it was “hasta la vista, baby” for the Terminator movies.
What Went Wrong With Terminator: Genisys?
Terminator: Genisys was a doomed enterprise from the start. After all, Genisys was not unlike fellow summer 2015 legacy sequel Jurassic World, providing the first sequel to a saga that had spent over a decade in dormancy. In between 2001’s Jurassic Park III and 2015’s Jurassic World, two theatrical Terminator sequels hit movie theaters while The Sarah Connor Chronicles played out for multiple seasons on the Fox network. If you wanted more Terminator, chances are you could get satisfied long before Genisys crept into theaters.
The final film, though, did not help muster up enthusiasm for what was a boondoggle project from the start. Genisys was an utterly terrible blockbuster devoid of personality or fun that filled up the screen with endless tiresome sequel teases. It also tried too hard to mimic past Terminator movies, including recreating scenes from the initial two Terminator installments. At least 2009’s Terminator: Salvation shifted the saga into a previously unexplored time period; Genisys was just redundant in every sense of the word.
The Genisys marketing campaign at least provided some truth in advertising by providing infamous indicators to viewers that this wasn’t a production worth getting invested in. The final Genisys trailer drew controversy for revealing a third-act twist that Jason Clarke’s John Connor becomes the movie’s nanobot-possessed villain. It was a shockingly unconfident promotional maneuver that spoiled a tremendous storytelling surprise on a massive marketing canvas. Genisys was already giving away its crummy storytelling impulses in the trailers – a sign to all moviegoers to stay far away. They did so in droves, as Genisys became the first Terminator sequel to make under $100 million, domestically.
The Immense Fallout
Thanks to extremely high grosses in China, Terminator: Genisys did manage to creep past the $400 million mark, worldwide. In hindsight, Genisys was one of the peak examples of mid-2010s American blockbusters (along with Warcraft) getting bolstered by Chinese moviegoers; however, given that American studios only get 25% of box office figures grossed in China, and Genisys cratered in nearly every other territory globally, the film’s box office haul was still firmly in the “underwhelming” category. To make matters worse, artists who participated in the feature have only shared horror stories about Genisys since its 2015 release.
Director Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World, Game of Thrones), for instance, claimed that helming Genisys was a draining endeavor that nearly put him off directing forever. Emilia Clarke, meanwhile, has remarked that, despite Genisys allowing her to work with Taylor again, Genisys was a grueling experience nobody had fun with. This installment’s toxic influence on the Terminator saga was especially apparent four years after its release when Terminator: Dark Fate opened. Despite bringing back Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor and trying to be a direct T2 sequel, the well-reviewed Dark Fate was one of the biggest box office flops of all time.
Even an artistically superior Terminator installment couldn’t get the Terminator franchise back on track. This saga was already off the rails when Genisys came along, and it buried the franchise deeper in the dirt. How could moviegoers trust this once beloved sci-fi institution if it was connected to dismal productions like Genisys? Though there have been hints in recent years that Terminator might one day return to the big screen, but it’s doubtful this saga can ever reclaim its ’90s stature. What a truly dark fate for Terminator: Genisys, the blockbuster that was once meant “to save a billion-dollar franchise.”
Terminator: Genisys is now streaming on Pluto TV and Paramount+
