Terminator Genisys
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Regardless of whether or not the near-record opening day figures for Terminator Genies prove to be a flash in the pan or in-fact the first moment of a somewhat leggy run, the film is still another huge testament to the notion that the domestic box office is merely one piece of the overall pie. This is of course especially true when it comes to big-budget would-be tent poles. All due respect, I don’t think STX Entertainment is crossing their fingers for a boffo overseas total for The Gift, but they are already thrilled with their $31 million-and-counting domestic take. The notion of a franchise film that received poor reviews and underwhelmed in America still doing well enough outside of America to potentially justify a sequel is a somewhat scary one for the narcissistic American moviegoer.
It somewhat negates the notion of American moviegoers having the final say in terms of what franchise films become franchises and/or get sequels. It also makes it that much more likely that studios will merely turn out franchise-friendly material at the expense of everything else safe in the knowledge that they will get many turns at bat. As the overseas markets expand over the next decade, assuming they do, it will be that much harder to justify a smaller-budget entry that basically gets one turn at bat (American box office) versus a would-be franchise film that has the chance of scoring all around the world or at least scoring in enough territories to make it a worthwhile investment.That’s the bad news. And of course, the whole “underperforming franchise film sizzles outside of America” is good news or bad news purely based on whether you liked the film in question. If you liked Terminator Genisys, then the China box office is great news. If you hated Paramount/Viacom Inc’s Terminator Genisys, you’re distraught that what seemed to be a case of audiences rejecting a relatively cynical franchise gambit may well have been merely partial rejection. Yes, I’m showing my critical colors here, but while I “mourn” the overseas triumphs of Terminator Genisys or the utterly loathsome Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ($240 million domestic but $1 billion worldwide), I must also pause to celebrate the fact that we’re getting a Kung Fu Panda 3 from Dreamworks Animation and that Melissa McCarthy’s Spy showed genuine overseas muscle.
The notion of a film flopping or underperforming here only to score big overseas is as old as (at least) Kevin Costner’s Waterworld earning $175 million overseas after earning merely $88m domestic or Sylvester Stallone’s underrated 1996 disaster drama Daylight flopping in America ($33m) but earning $159m worldwide and thus making it a break-even proposition at an $80m budget. What’s theoretically changed is the whole franchise obsession over the last decade. It’s no longer a matter of whether a big film will turn out to be profitable outside of the US, but rather a would-be franchise will continue regardless of what American audiences think. In 1996, there was never going to be a Daylight 2 or a Waterworld Returns, because Hollywood wasn’t as sequel-friendly or franchise-obsessed.
But while it’s tempting to view the success of movies like On Stranger Tides as a mortal blow to studio innovation, it’s a little more complicated than that. First of all, again, your perception of the notion of an expensive picture failing in America scoring overseas as a positive or a negative is dependent on whether you liked that film. While I’m not a huge fan of Guillermo del Toro’s first film, a lot of smart film critics/writers are euphoric about the theoretical Pacific Rim 2 and their happiness is infectious. And there is not a day that goes by that I don’t wish that Speed Racer hadn’t opened in the summer of 2010, where its likely 3D conversion would have probably made it into an overseas smash in the shadow of Avatar and Alice in Wonderland. Second of all, this foreign rescue doesn’t just happen for franchise films.
