When Terminator: Dark Fate arrived in theaters in 2019, it did not make the splash that studio execs had been hoping for. The big-budget film, which serves as a legacy sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day by ignoring all of the other installments, brought back both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton with a special appearance from Edward Furlong. Despite all of this, Dark Fate barely managed to crack $261 million at the worldwide box office, and this was still in pre-pandemic times. This performance resulted in more than $120 million lost, given the high production cost.
In a new interview with THR, Gabriel Luna — who played an advanced Terminator in the film — looked back upon Terminator: Dark Fate and how the sequel didn't do as well as expected. He wonders if the time between Terminator movies played into that, as he feels that film itself is great given the action and performances in the sequel.
"You can never anticipate the timing of things and how people will respond. That one was even harder to gauge with so many years in between films in that franchise. But not only that, there had been nearly 30 years between the film we were making and the one we were truly trying to be a sequel to [Terminator 2: Judgment Day]. So there was a lot of space in there, and there was a lot of time that was unaccounted for in terms of Terminator’s presence in the minds of the audience and the folks who love the franchise. So it was disappointing in that we knew what we had in the can. We knew we had a great film with some really cool performances and some great action. Tim Miller did a phenomenal job."
At the end of the day, the box office numbers aren't what matters most to Luna as a "hired hand" on the project. He can only speak to the film itself and the work he put in along with director Tim Miller and his co-stars, feeling "extremely proud" of Terminator: Dark Fate. As Luna, who can now be seen in HBO's hit series The Last of Us, puts it:
"I truly find sanctuary in the fact that it was a great film and that people do enjoy it. Everybody who speaks to me about it has had a positive experience. I’m not Paramount Pictures; I don’t do the accounting for them over there. So a disappointment to them is different from what it is to me. I’m a hired hand, and I did my best in the role. They paid my freight long before the box office receipts came out. With Jim [Cameron], Arnold and Linda [Hamilton] coming back and Tim putting his heart into it, you obviously want people to see it, but all that said, I’m extremely proud of the film. I’ve gained some lasting friendships and a relationship with one of my heroes, Governor Schwarzenegger. So I wouldn’t trade it away for a billion-dollar picture, but once again, I don’t do Paramount’s accounting."
What Went Wrong With Terminator: Dark Fate?
Last month, producer James Cameron also shared his thoughts on Terminator: Dark Fate bombing at the box office. He blamed his own insistence on making sure Arnold Schwarzenegger would be back, feeling that coupling this with Linda Hamilton's return made the sequel feel too dated.
"All of a sudden it wasn’t your Terminator movie, it wasn’t even your dad’s Terminator movie, it was your granddad’s Terminator movie," Cameron told Deadline.
That followed comments from director Tim Miller who'd also told Deadline that he was "wrong" to make the film, figuring that perhaps that franchise has maybe given all that it can in its current form.
"Terminator’s an interesting movie to explore, but maybe we’ve explored it enough," he said.