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SUNDAY PM/MONDAY AM: It's another big win for a family film after a dry spell filled with too many sci-fi movies. Twentieth Century Fox's Night at the Museum 2: Battle Of The Smithsonian not only was the clear No. 1 at the North American box office this weekend, but also Ben Stiller's biggest live-action opener ever. After opening to $15.3 million Friday, NATM2 received the family bump (+36%) for $20.6 million Saturday and $18.3 million Sunday to easily win the 3-day weekend with $53.5M. The pic finished the 4-day holiday with $70M, an impressive haul with so many half price kiddie tickets. Once again, Fox put together a massive global release: 4,095 theaters in North America, plus 8,100 runs in 93 territories internationally. IMAX showings generated $4.1M (8% of weekend) on 160 screens.
Museum 2 is the first all-audience comedy since Race To Witch Mountain way back in March, and Mall Cop: Paul Blart back in January. So the market was receptive to a pic that parents knew was safe for offspring. This reteaming of Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson and Robin Williams with director Shawn Levy, had to live up to the first in the franchise, which in 2007 opened at Christmastime and went on to earn $250.8M and worldwide $575M.
Museum 2 is likely to have summer legs, whereas Warner Bros' Terminator: Salvation is already weak-kneed. The McG-directed 4th in the franchise starring Batman's Christian Bale is running out of steam after making $14.8 million in domestic grosses both Friday and Saturday and $12.7M Sunday for a 3-day weekend of just $43M from 3,530 venues. That's much lower even than Watchmen's non-holiday opening. T4 finished with an underperforming $53.8M for the 4-day holiday, and $67.2M for the 5-day cume (including $3M from its Wednesday midnight showings and $13.5M from Thursday). Even though my box office gurus were confident Museum 2 would wind up #1, T4 "is pretty disappointing as most pundits thought it was going to win the weekend, as did most if not all of the tracking services," a rival studio exec notes. Under and over age 25 males turned out, but the buzz turned rancid among fanboys who overwhelmingly didn't like the pic. (Top critics didn't either: there were only 33% positive reviews at Rotten Tomatoes). Warner Bros expected more, especially because T4 benefitted from worldwide awareness from that Christian Bale audio.
Sony is handling T4 internationally and releasing it in Asia next week but not until June for major overseas markets so as not to compete with its Angels & Demons. Domestically, that pic made $5.9M Friday and $8.3M Saturday and $7.7M Sunday, and will close in on $300M worldwide as soon as Tuesday ($286M now). It was battling for No. 3 with Paramount's Star Trek and it was a close call: $21.8M vs $22.7M for the 3-day weekend, and $27.7M vs $29.4M for the 4-day holiday. Ron Howards' pic has a $87.8M domestic cume while JJ Abrams' reboot (which made $5.8M Friday and $8.7M Saturday and $8.5M Sunday) has a $191M North American cume starting its 3rd week. Rounding out the Top 5, Paramount's spoof Dance Flick from the next generation of Wayans opened with a tepid $10.7M from 2,450 dates for the 3-day weekend, and $13.1M for the 4-day holiday.
FRIDAY 1PM: Latest estimates are that Warner Bros' Terminator Salvation is tracking closer to Fast & Furious "but it's going to take 5 days to get what they did in 3," one rival studio exec notes. T4 opened with $13.5M Thursday including Wednesday's $3M midnight shows and now looks to make $70M-$80M for the 5 days including Memorial Weekend vs Fast & Furious which did $70M in 3 days. Hollywood analysts are still insisting that Night At The Museum2: Battle Of The Smithsonian has the potential to open #1 with $80M for the 4-day holiday. But 20th Century Fox keeps insisting it'll make $60M at most even if it does big business once the kids get out at noon today.
FRIDAY AM: Warner Bros' Terminator Salvation chalked up domestic grosses of $13.3M from its Thursday opening, including $3M in midnight showings. The 4-day weekend estimates are now leveling out at perhaps $60M+ for this actioner and for 20th Century Fox's Night At The Museum: Battle Of The Smithsonian.
THURSDAY 2:30PM: 20th Century Fox is saying they expect Night At The Museum: Battle Of The Smithsonian and Warner Bros' Terminator: Salvation to be about neck-and-neck with $55M-$60M for the 4-day holiday. The studio even thinks Museum 2 could come in 2nd behind Terminator 4. But rival studios and my own box office gurus think Museum 2 will be #1 with $85M by the end of the long weekend. We'll see...
THURSDAY NOON: Get ready for a mammoth Memorial Day weekend at the domestic and foreign box office. But you knew that already. By Monday night, 20th Century Fox's sequel Night At The Museum: Battle Of The Smithsonian should round up the family sample to end No. 1 with an estimated $85 million for the 4-day holiday.
Warner Bros' Terminator: Salvation already brought in $3 million from its midnight showings and should end Sunday with an estimated $60M for the 4-day holiday and a $75 cume for the 5-day. It looks big with males under and over age 25 but "I wish them luck with female moviegoers," snarks a rival studio exec. "There hasn't been anything shown that should convince a female to go see the movie." There's also a lot of fanboy chatter since Harry Knowles' review eviscerated T4 on his Ain't It Cool News. The combo of Bale and director McG is new so hard to compare their pic with the franchise starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. But 1984's T1 did $38.3M domestic and $78M worldwide, 1991's T2 did $204.8M/$519M, and 2003's T3 did $150.3M/$433M.
Studios expect Sony's Angels & Demons after one week, and Paramount's Star Trek reboot after two weeks, to be neck-and-neck for the weekend. Expect an estimated $25M apiece for the 4-day holiday. And, rounding out the Top 5 will be the Damien Wayans-directed spoof Dance Flick which features a genuinely funny trailer . Playing in 2,450 dates, it could finish the 4-day holiday with $15M.
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Man did T4 blow a fart in the wind. The movie just sucked. Yeah it was shot well and some of the special fx were cool, but…that’s about it.
I have to admit, Dance Flick is VERY funny. The Wayans do have a knack for the spoofing genre
No way Night at the Museum does $85M this weekend, even for 4-day, sounds like rivals spinning ridiculous estimates. It’s not tracking anywhere near that and if you use the first one as a comp, it will probably play a long time, but only open in the 50s, 60s for a great weekend. These estimates are out of hand. I work at an agency, and I can’t figure how anyone is coming up with these.
I have a feeling Terminator might be the first notable flop of the summer. There’s a great deal of competition for casual moviegoers and fanboys are strongly divided.
Star Trek passed Wolverine this week and T4 will not catch it. LEGS. Baby. Legs.
A Terminator movie without James Cameron is soulless. A Terminator movie without Arnold Schwarzenegger is pointless.
There isn’t enough first choice interest to keep this film going after this weekend.
The boxoffice trackers I have read have T4 at 87m for 5 day weekend and “Museum” at 66m for 4 days. Yahoo movie board has T4 with a B+ rating from 400 plus posters thus far which is pretty good. Frankly I pay little attention to film critics when it comes to the ACTION film Genre. It always amazes me how one critic can say the film is fantastic while another will say the same film is crap. Its as if they were viewing two completely different film. Actually Film Critics themselves SUCK and get a F grade from me.
Terminator is tracking for a $90 to $100 million weekend! I would be shocked if it did $60 million. Museum isn’t tracking well at all by contrast. Terminator is a review-proof type of film if ever there was one. Despite the bad publicity it has recieved, there seems to be a STRONG desire to see it based on all the attention it is getting. People just want to see what the fuss was all about. BY THE WAY, Terminator is also destroying MUSEUM at fandango and movietickets.com.
I think someone might very much regret making estimates like that if it came from FOX.
jdls08,
Film critics don’t suck. You obviously know nothing about critically analyzing a film or what make a good film vs. a bad one. Don’t let your ignorance rub off on everyone else. Of course critics have differences; welcome to the real world. The per-screen taking of a film, with some exceptions, shows that critically acclaimed films make more per-screen than to critically panned ones. It’s not a coincidence; some films are just plain bad while others are excellent. So you enjoy your brainless entertainment. Some of us actually appreciate film as something more than a way to waste time and money.
my friends worked on terminator so i want it to do well.
OH, Dan, Get a grip. For all your claims of expertise on the subject matter you missed the point of my comments.
You might love film critics and base your film going decisions on their opinions but as a whole Film critics have biases and other influences they use or come into play when they review films and as such you get one that thinks one is a masterpiece and another think it is crap and as such these critics don’t affect my decision as to what I see and or what I like. To cut to the chase, you might think you are so fricking sophisticated as to think because a critic didn’t like a film and rated the film a C and I did and rated the film a B the critic is smarter than I am and therefore I enjoy braindead entertainment and DAN here is where your ignorance surface. Hell, many film critics had meandering jobs in the news room until the editor needed a nerd to handle the job and where chosen to fill the post. Hell, if I had my way I probably round up a whole lot of them and throw them in a landfill where they belong. But then again I suppose everyone needs a job.
Dan, just because something is an action movie does not mean it is “brainless entertainment”, the only people who use that phrase are pompous film buff wannabes who want to feel important or special. Newsflash buddy, movies are meant to be enjoyed, however that happens.
My IQ is 135 and I liked T4. Is it better than James Cameron’s films? No. But it is better than the third one IMO. But I guess you would call Terminator 1 and 2 “brainless entertainment” just because there are explosions in them…and you call the other guy ignorant.
jdls09,
I’m sorry for coming off as a jerk and pretentious; I will try to be more polite. My point was that critics understand a film better than you or me (I’m not a critic) and are qualified to judge it on its own merits as a film. I am open-minded and don’t let them make up my mind for me, but when it comes down to it, they are almost always right. And no, that’s not how most critics come to get their jobs, at least not the ones I read and respect.
TheaterFan,
Please point out where I said all action movies were brainless entertainment. I love action movies. Sooo…
I also like some movies that are critically panned; I never said it was bad to like a move critics don’t, just they the critics are usually right. I also like cheeseburgers from Burger King. They aren’t the pinnacle of gourmet cooking – quite the opposite – but they can still be enjoyed for what they are. So sorry for the offense to both of you. I hope you better understand my position and I will try to not be so arrogant next time around…
I just saw T4, liked it better than Wolverine and Star Trek. Critics gave it bad reviews, but the word of mouth has been positive and hopefully save the movie.
Comment by jdls08 — May 21, 2009 @ 2:32 pm
Amen to that!
I have always thought movie critics are a bunch of stupid ppl who thinks they are better than the movie goers by making known their reviews to the masses. Sure, everyone is entitled to their own opinion but keep it to yourself.
That is why I have never bothered to visit RottenTomatoes cause its so stupid to read other ppl’s comment about a movie. Heck! My gran thinks so too and she called Ebert a prick! She can’t believed there are still ppl out who reads critics column.
I guess with Rupert Murdoch intending to charge a fee for online newspaper, we can finally say goodbye to the damn critics cause no one wants to pay to read some silly comments and having to pay for it
Btw, jdls09, got me ready my spade to dig the hole for the critics..lol
I don’t care what critics will say. Remember Woody Allen and his comments on them?
It’s Terminator me and all my friends will go just because it’s TERMINATOR!
Not sure about the legs through. I think Tramsformers will be top grossing movie of 2009…
The New York Times and the New York Daily News gave Terminator very good reviews.
This female moviegoer will see anything with that hunk Christian Bale in it. Don’t you think he has millions of female fans just like myself?
But to all those who saw T4 and liked it, I have to ask what was it that you actually liked, content wise? Seriously?
You can blow up all the buildings in the world, but without character development it all just renders itself meaningless. Mind you this is not a poorly made film in the least, the production values are enourmous, but in the end it just leaves you empty.
There’s nothing in it that you haven’t seen before. And for a production with a cost of 200 million that’s pretty lame. Terminator is done for me now. I have the 3 prior movies and that’s enough for me. If they want to ressurrect thing in 20 years with a fresh concept then great, but if they ramp up production for a sequel to be released in a couple of years then count me out. Sorry McG.
The kids movie is going to win, every suburban parent is going to be shushing their kids through that movie all weekend. Terminator has been getting pretty bad reviews :http://www.newsy.com/videos/terminator_s_mixed_reviews_meanings but it is Terminator everyone who has watched the other movies is going to turn out for this one. Don’t count out the ladies either, Christian Bale is tasty and so is that Worthington guy.
There’s a difference between film criticism and film reviews. 90% of the “reviewers” are doing just that, viewing something and giving their opinion.
In either case, its kind of inane to base your decision to view something based on someone else’s opinion – unless you find someone who’s likes and dislikes are similar enough to yours. Or alternatively, someone who writes well enough that despite giving a positive or negative review gives you enough information to let you know if you’ll like it.
That sad…the reviews are crushing T4. Undeservedly so…not that it’s good – it’s just not THAT bad. Completely souless, but compentently assembled.
B Hennessay
uhm, “Star Trek” is still $75M behind the world-wide “Wolverine” take.
“But to all those who saw T4 and liked it, I have to ask what was it that you actually liked, content wise? Seriously?”
Because it was entertaining, looked great, and delivered the goods as a SUMMER ACTION MOVIE. Sure it was silly, sure Bale was cashing the check — who cares? It’s not Shakespeare, it’s a two-hour ride and I fully enjoyed the hell out of it. And ILM’s rendering of ‘84 Arnold was terrific at the end.
It wasn’t faultless, obviously, but some of these “awful” reviews are, IMO, reviewing the fact that McG’s name is on it and not the film itself. I wonder if some other filmmaker had their name on this picture if it would still be getting the mixed reviews it has been.
One thing I know, is that it’s not nearly as bad as Harry Knowles claims it is — in fact he’s lost all credibility with his pissing all over this movie as far as I’m concerned. Not that he had much of it before, either, but that site is firmly in bed with certain filmmakers and studios, I have no doubt now about that.
Remember when Summer movies were Good?
Oh how a wee lass longs for those days.
Props to the Star Trek folk for doing it right… shame on Fox for aborting out another bad X-Men movie
Considering Harry Knowles rarely sees a movie he doesn’t like (nor refuses an all-expenses-paid trip to the set), the fact that his review kills this movie with fire is telling and does not bode well. It won’t dissuade fan boys, but his sentiments will carry through the broader critic sphere and influence those casual fans who are trying to decide whether they want to see T4 or NATM2.
The fault lies squarely with “McG” (I wish I cared enough to know what his real name is, because I feel like an ass just writing that stupid moniker). As an aside, take a moment to listen to him speak. He knows that we know he doesn’t know what he’s doing, so he peppers his speech with nonsensical pseudo-auteur lingo and near malapropisms. He even avoids contractions, as if we’ll think he’s smart because he employs “does not” instead of “don’t”. Its fascinating.
I’ve have more faith in critics if any of the MUSEUM reviews were written by anyone who could recognise that Hank Azaria is doing a Boris Karloff impression (right down to the make-up job). Some of them seem to think he’s impersonating Jeremy Irons! Seen any movies made BEFORE 1975, guys?
That’s only half of Indy Jones IV’s Thursday, and 1/3rd of Matrix Revolution.
That’s not good folks…our second under-performer of the month?
Huge Terminator fan from back in the day, but T4 is pretty weak on character and plot. It’s as if the script depends upon you caring about the character simply because you already cared about them from the previously seen T movies. The FX were big for sure but nothing that really wowed me in terms of cleverness or anything… McG just had a bunch of $ to blow it up good. All in all, didn’t suck, but not good…
re: Christian Bale and T4…is it true that any publicity is good publicity? I am mildly interested in this franchise but don’t want to see the movie because Bale is a dick.
Not a good opening day.
But it’s also not too surprising.
T3 was promoted as Arnold’s big comeback (to his iconic role, no less) and yet it didn’t exactly set the box office on fire. Now, six years later, we have a sequel with no original stars and a talent roster that includes McG and the writers of Catwoman. In addition to the terrible reviews, even the “positive” ones say things like “It’s not good, but it’s not THAT bad.”
So what am I missing here?
Why is everyone acting like this film MUST succeed? Have we really become this desperate to see every franchise continue at any cost?
My frustration with T4 is that the original script by Ferris and Brancato was inspired smart fun – especially when compared to most tentpole wannabes. Really, it was. But that was before the round of million dollar phone-in jobs – including an unreadable non-dramatic mess from Haggis – took their toll. Add the always calm Bale and eager to please McG to the mix and the story went off the rails. Of course, most reviewers (Other than Denby and Lane, are there really any more film critics?!) don’t know the back story so instead, blame the writers.
And when it comes to critics… it was disturbing to read Roger Ebert’s admission that he’s never even seen TERMINATOR. That is a seminal film and he’s had decades to watch it. LAME.
T4 was just a series of explosions. It basically has nothing to do with the previous Terminator movies, it’s just a gimmick to lure audience based on the past success of T1 and T2. It really didn’t seem like a complete film, very crudely edited, huge plot holes, no chracter development, etc. The word of mouth should be bad on this, I heard a lot of people badmouthing the film as they left.
Comment by Doc Michaels – “One thing I know, is that it’s not nearly as bad as Harry Knowles claims it is — in fact he’s lost all credibility with his pissing all over this movie as far as I’m concerned. Not that he had much of it before, either, but that site is firmly in bed with certain filmmakers and studios, I have no doubt now about that.”
Totall agree with you on that point.
Fine you want a thrill ride, I get it, special efx, things that go BOOM! Terminator 1&2&3 were polished B-movie rollercoasters, but at least you gave a shit about the people in peril. Movies like this are no different then watching a Fouth of July fireworks display. This movie will be totally forgotten by next week. Just doesn’t have any legs. I wouldn’t even call it a B movie, that would be too kind. More like a C plus flick with Grade A efx reels.
Terminator is done. Move on folks.
Well, I went to see what DAN says is my choice of “Brainless entertainment”, T4, last night and came away thinking although this was grim and humorless it was a dazzling thrill ride. Oh, I suppose having Arnold Schwarzenegger running around naked as a bad robot was funny and guys, MOON BloodGood is one hot hot number. As for those that say they didn’t like it because it didn’t have character development, LOL, DUH, evidently they being buying into those negative film critics reviews OR THEY HAVEN’T SEEN THE OTHER THREE MOVIES THAT introduced the characters except for Marcus Wright and pretty MUCH EXPLAINS WHAT IS GOING ON IN THIS FILM. Anyway final consensus is ” brainless, mindless, relentless action sequences”, an excellent Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin and Moon BloodGood, making for a decent enjoyable summer popcorn action thrill ride.
WOLVERINE & STAR TREK WERE BOTH GREAT MOVIES. LETS STOP WITH THE HATE. FOR GOODNESS SAKES ITS ONLY MOVIES.
I WILL ALSO BE SEEING BOTH NATM2 AND T4. PERSONALLY I NEVER HAD A BETTER SUMMER EXPERIENCING MOVIES THAT INTEREST ME, DAMN THE CRITICS.
cant wait for Drag Moi to Hell AND THEN TRANS2 TO PUT THE ICING & GI-JOE TO PUT THE CHERRY, ON THE SUMMER MOVIE CAKE.
life is too serious, devisive & dangerous folks already…..
…..so why not get upset about something more important like world peace? ya know? hmmm?
I’ve got an idea – how about the Brothers at War documentary for this Memorial Day weekend!
Alboone, I liked T4 because I have already seen all the other films a hundred times so I don’t NEED character development for everyone who was important. The only one who really needed to be developed in T4 was Marcus Wright, and since he was the main character I felt he was because by movie’s end he rediscovered his belief of what being a human means.
Oh and Dan, don’t worry about it. It’s just that I see so many posts on this site with “holier than thou” attitudes when it comes to movie tastes that it gets really grating.
Yea i saw terminator and dance flick today, and i actually liked both. terminator 2 is still the best of the terminator series, but salvation is a decent watch. Dance Flick, unlike the past horrible spoof movies that came out in the last 3 years, was ACTUALLY funny—i guess the Wayans family should be the only people who do spoof movies.
I just saw Terminator…or I should say I went and walked out past the midpoint of the movie. It had ZERO story. I was bored to tears. It was soooo disappointing because I was looking so forward to this movie. You CANNOT just have 106 minutes of repetitive explosions with no story. No character developement. I blame none of the actors. They were fine. The script was devoid of any soul or much of anything else. We know McG can shoot great action sequences, but how about a story to go along with it? The sound was beyond ear splitting and one action sequence at a 7-11 went on for about half and hour. It got to the point where I was yawning and wishing I could hear some dialogue. Flop. Flop. Flop.
T4 = Bomb!
$15.5m Friday and might miss $60m for the 4-day frame.
Can someone explain the reasoning why Hollywood studios attempt to push over-inflated estimates for rival studios films?
Is it just fodder for industry insiders for bragging rights?
Or do they honestly think national attendance figures in subsequent weekends will drop because some movie only did 75% of original (inflated) estimates…and somehow the movie-going public will hear that stat and conclude the movie isn’t all that good and skip it?
Or something else?
I get that reasonable people can reasonably disagree on things, but I just can’t for the life of me understand how anyone could have left T4 feeling satisfied! It was the freaking Phantom Menace of the Terminator franchise!!
I’ve heard others say that it looked pretty but that it had no soul and I couldn’t agree more. It’s like: who cares what happens to any of these characters (except maybe Worthington, but what a crappy, idiotic ending for his character).
Bale: decent acting, but how did Connor go from the Nick Stahl that we last saw to this guy?
Bryce Dallas: jesus, how can someone who presumably doesn’t use botox yet be so f*cking expressionless?? Why didn’t they stick with Claire Danes?? She gave such a great performance in T3.
Moon Bloodgood: was it just me, or were her teeth like REALLY white? I kept on thinking of that one Friends episode where Ross’ teeth glow in the dark from having been overly-bleached.
Effects: fine, but effects were never what made the series great, it was the characters! Even T2 with it’s ground-breaking (at the time) effects relied on character development to propel the story.
Conclusion: I know now, why you cry. Because T4 really was THAT bad.
I actually thought T3 was a lot better than T4. T4 was just soulless.
Worthington was quite solid though and it’s hard to complain being able to look at Moon Bloodgood for a while. But overall, not satisfied.
Museum was entertaining. Amy Adams is as charming as they get.
I have really mixed feelings about the movie. Worthington was great, and his character was the only dramatic weight moving this movie. But that’s not enough. There are so many plot holes, inconsistencies, and outright terminator blasphemy going on in the film. The scriptwriters ought to be publicly flogged for tarnishing what could have been a much better movie. Never have I found myself to be so critical of a movie’s plot before. That said, it was technically perfect. Minimum noticeable CGI (maybe hollywood is getting the hint that we HATE that stuff), and everything visual and audible was fantastic. I think McG might have given this movie most of its redeeming qualities. It’s a fantastic looking film. But goddamn those screenwriters.
“My point was that critics understand a film better than you or me…”
Haven’t met many critics, have you?
Critics are just screenwriters who never made it.
I get plenty of them in my classes at USC.
Looks like Terminator brings in a four day of just $56m and a five day of $69m? Under $70m in five days!? I guess word set in early about how bad it is.
Night at the Museum should win the 4-day battle with about $65-66m, nearly equal to what Terminator took five days to bring in. Good for Fox, bad for WB.
WB did a fantastic job marketing, so can we all just blame McG already?
T4 is very bad. Bale screams all his lines and the film actual star is a complete unknown in a transparent role and he’s just okay. Bryce Dallas Howard just stands around looking confused with too much makeup for a post-apocalyptic woman.
McG rips off Alien (natch) Transformers and Road Warrior and not well.
Word of mouth will kill this turd by Monday.
I think this well is dry.
Hey, I know let’s get JJ Abrams to remake the original and set it in a alternate time line!
To: Kevin
RE: G**damn those screenwriters
Do you know how the system works?! As with most studio blockbuster-hopefuls, the TERMINATOR SALVATION credited screenwriters were cut out of the process by the studio execs, director and star who all think they’re better storytellers. These same brainiacs paid millions in re-write fees to writers who didn’t care about the franchise or its mythology as much as they cared about getting a quick big dollar payday. The process was excruciating and the screenwriters should not be blamed. Their original script had surprises, soul, heart, great action and fun. If you can, read it before damning the wrong people.
This is just sad. Terminator Salvation is by far the best thing out there right now. Audiences just want family crap any more. Audiences seem to think that the less thinking involved the better. I’m not saying Terminator is a big thinker but at least it has some subtext and messages in there. What does Night At The Musuem have to offer except the same crap as the first. Oh yeah this time they are in a bigger musuem? Give me a break. I just think it’s sad that Wolverine makes tons of money and was terrible. Then you have Star Trek, which was fun, but incredibly over rated. People just seem to have bad tastes these days. I wish it was 20 years ago again back when people actually knew what quality was.
Saw ST again for the 2nd time in Santa Monica. The theatre was packed. It is still pulling in good crowds. Crowd reaction is very positive with the laughs and “oohs” at the right time. This movie will last for a while yet.
CutTheSpin,
How do we get a copy of this original script? Because the one from the movie I saw last night was pretty crappy. As was Bale’s performance. People were laughing at his “Batman” voice. Doesn’t he have any other tricks up his sleeve?
And almost every line that Common said got a huge laugh. Especially his, “It’s beautiful, man.”
Terminator gets an A+
T2 gets an A-
T3 gets a B-
T4 gets a C
The first 45 minutes are good, but then it goes way off the rails. Way way way off.
Such wasted potential.
Surprise! Night at the Museum 2 will *not* come in # 1 in all its foreign markets – probably due to the aggressive (too weak a word, really) marketing campaign of Angels & Demons and the many many many screens that flick still occupies (comparable to NATM2’s NA opening).
Night at the Museum 2 : Terminator 4 (NA)
4096 venues/ 7000 screens : 3530 venues/6400 screens
Friday: $ 3735/venue : $ 4205/venue
IOW: $ 2185/screen : $ 2319/screen
worldwide release : North American release
metacritic.com score: 43 : 54
RE: “especially because T4 benefitted from worldwide awareness from that Christian Bale audio.” Come again? NATM2 should benefit from worldwide awareness due to its global release. Who still remembers that tape? Do Jane and Joe care – did they ever?
No. Jane and Joe usually do web searches that look like this (insert any actor’s/actress’ name, doesn’t matter much):
Christian Bale gay
Christian Bale nude
Christian Bale girlfriend
None of the newly released movies turn up in the y! buzzlog or google trends. (except Moon Bloodgood of T4) The nation’s busy with American Idol, iphone apps, Lucy Gordon’s and Will Barrow’s deaths, UFC, gas prices, indy 500 and Heath Ledger (due to the Cannes screening of the long awaited DOCTOR PARNASSUS, I guess).
Christian Bale’s still an excellent actor and he’s still hot…. a fact Terminator fanboys may not care about one bit, of course. T4 suffers from other things, like…. its trailer.
When I saw that one scene in the T4 trailer with a Transformer-like robot towering over Bale (and Yelchin, I think), it reminded me on Transformers. That’s a red flag, not a selling point.
It’s funny that people thought the Christian Bale audio tape would help T4. Maybe it did with some people, but for me, it was just the opposite.
If I have such a negative impression of an actor that I won’t be able to forget it while I watch him act, then I don’t bother to go see his movies. That’s the case with Christian Bale for me.
It may be unfair, but hey, life isn’t fair, is it?
The main problem with T4 (and there are many) is that the director seems to have decided that the explosions are more important than the plot, the FX more pivotal than the characters.
McG failed with characters and a universe that should have been bullet-proof because he didn’t seem to understand that the earlier Terminator movies were actually about something. Once T4 decided it was going to be about the size of the robots and pyro not even a time displacement device could save it.
Sure you can suspend belief and go along for a ride — but this movie suffers from some real fundamental flaws that can only be overcome by giving it a huge pass. Really, if John Connor is the target and the bots know Kyle Reese is his father (how do they know this, BTW), why don’t they just kill Reese when they capture him halfway through the film? I digress.
McG is, not surprisingly, a James Cameron-caliber director. Unfortunately he’s not even close to Michael Bay. And that’s saying something.
To CineFileX:
Agree with your appraisal of T:S’s epic crappiness 100%.
But we don’t need to re-invent the franchise.
You just need to watch the first two films with Cameron’s original ending — together they ARE the full and complete Terminator story as the creator intended.
Terminator 4 just takes a completely new direction and its a risky move — from becoming a futuristic cat and mouse game to a bleak mad max world. Such a dull beginning. I was a bit disappointed and I wasn’t expecting it to be mind blowing or anything. Best thing is Sam worthington and “blair”. If you had the choice of watching Star Trek — you don’t need to know anything about star trek to enjoy this movie — i’d choose star trek.
so many of you miss the point. when will bewkes get off his ass and get rid of the problem. Namely Robinov. Horn keeps him because he works hard. I have news for him. Everyone works hard. His taste is up his ass and everything that works for him (Harry Potter & dark knight) is from old regimes. And the hits are far and few in between. Let Emmerich run the company already. Great taste and most important, a committment to the bottom line. We need our shares to get back up. We’ve all lost not millions, but billions, with this guy.
You are so right George Glass!
Common got laughs for every line reading. He sounded like he was reading the side of a cereal box in a fake ethnic voice.
Why does every singer/rapper asswipe get a role in a fil when there are great qualified actors like Laz Alonzo (Avatar, F&F) Columbus Short (Cadillac Records) and Brian White (Fighting) out there looking for work.
But no, the studio idiots only know black singers and rappers and think that this alone with skin color means talent. Will i Am was awful in Wolverine and Beyonce mumbled her way through Obsessed
What next? Kanye West in Hamlet?
Cut the shit and hire black people the same way you do whites you assholes.
George G -
I don’t have a file copy but imagine that it’ll eventually end up online… if it hasn’t already. A good place to search http://www.terminatorfiles.net/forum/
The bigger point to my earlier post… Don’t blame the writers before knowing the backstory. Directors, execs, stars and their people often think they know best.
Warner Bros expected more, especially because T4 benefitted from worldwide awareness from that Christian Bale audio.
The Christian Bale audio leak is exactly why some people refused to see it.
GOD T4 sucked. jesus christ.
Why would you give a $200 million production to a grown man who still insists on calling himself “McG”?
CutTheSpin,
Are you Brancato or Ferris? The original draft has been passed around. Wasn’t much better or worse. Same story and characters, just shuffled around a bit, which is why they (or you) got sole credit. But yeah, this was clearly a script written by committee then placed in the hands of a director who cares more about stuff exploding than human drama. Cameron knew how to balance the two.
And was I the only one who noticed McG’s on-the-nose message about “everyone deserves a second chance”, a painfully obvious analogy for his own career?
McG can’t direct his way out of a paper bag. He needs to focus on rebooting Charlie’s Angels. I have no idea how this man keeps getting work. With all of the notable talent that went into rewrite this…Aaron Sorkin, Jonathan Nolan…it seems to be that McGina threw away the script and just shot a bunch of mindless action.
Shame on WB for hiring this douchebag.
Idi Ivory Wayans and his bros
r derivitive, stale and tired. Damon,
Marlon, & Damon Jr r the only ones
with tru talent — hopefully they’ll
break away and leave that DICKtator
on his own.
I couldn’t BELIEVE how sexy Bale was in Terminator. He can just stand there and do nothing and I want to be all over him. That face, that mouth, that bod……
He has mega sex appeal. I thought his acting was very good in this – better than he is as Batman.
Of course people stayed away from T4. McG’s cinematic efforts are synonomous with shit.
I’ll reserve judgement on T4 til I’ve seen it. The TV show which no one watched live was excellent and smart. And it ignored the mediocre T3. A shame that’s the one whose vision was squashed.
But let’s be honest. You had two big films open on the same weekend. Family films always do well. That’s a lot of competition.
After listening to Bale throw a tantrum like a petulant child there was no way in hell I was going to throw my hard earned money his way.
not a Bale fan: I agree with you in principle, but if you feel that way you should probably never go see a movie that has a major director/star/producer in/on it ever again.
Agreed… I’d love to see studios stop hiring shitty actors just because they’re popular singers. I can’t say all singers are bad actors… Jared Leto comes to mind, but most of them need to stay behind the mic.
To: Chuck F.
No, I’m not Ferris or Brancato and I did not work on the movie (although I work with who did). The only reason I posted is that I thought it unfair for them to be blamed for the lameness and lack of talent of others.
We can all disagree with the quality of their script but it was better than the script-by-committee movie that resulted.
I’m confused at why everyone is expecting the movie to do like 80 million or something. I think it has done very respectable — the last one made 150 million — were they expecting more??? I thought the rule of thumb is that if you make 3/4 of the last one, you are good and I think this is on it’s way to doing that.
Angels & Demons was terrific.
I am shocked. The trailer looked awful. Tom Hanks and Ron Howard are goddamned gold, man.
The only thing surprising about NATM:S and T4 is that anyone thought T4 would take the weekend. If T4 had had better WOM and reviews, yeah; but MUSEUM is not only a kid-and-weary-parent movie, it’s got appeal across the board. (Heck, even my parents wanted to see the latter, and they are in their 70s.
) In terms of sheer numbers, the odds were against T4.
“Of course people stayed away from T4. McG’s cinematic efforts are synonomous with shit.” Comment by Dorothy.
…how many people actually base if they go and see a movie by a specific director, other than a handful of very famous directors, with careers of 30-plus years.
…even with Batman & Memento, the MAJORITY of movie-goers do not flock to every movie done by Chris Nolan. Lets get real folks.
…and lets be VERY real, how many Trek movie goers even realize all the entertainment work that JJ Abrams has done over the years? MAYBE in Hollywood, but lets also face a BIG FACTOID: If movie industry counted on their survival based on how many Hollywood movie-goers attend movies, than the movie industry would have died a quick death almost a century ago.
I like the works of both McG and JJ Abrams. I liked Trek, Wolverine, T4 and NATM2.
cheers & remember there is a whole other world outside of Hollywood.
“McG is, not surprisingly, a James Cameron-caliber director. Unfortunately he’s not even close to Michael Bay. And that’s saying something.”
Shoot, he and Brett Ratner make Michael Bay look like James Cameron. :p
How well did “Night at the Museum 2″ do on IMAX? Did that effect ‘Star Trek’ on third weekend? Also, the first ‘Night at the Museum’ was released Christmas 2006.
Don’t remember original Terminator…movie, story, etc..Arnold and some kid? (sorry fans).
I enjoyed Friday night watching this (with my boyfriend) Terminator though, thought it was what ’summer action flicks’ should be.
I did keep trying to figure out scene were Christian Bale lost it while shooting.
Yes, critics are (most anyway) dudes that attempted a film career (writing, directing, etc..)and were paranoid at being criticized, then armed with a ton of knowledge and awe, decided to keep it safe and become critics instead–it’s like talking to that guy at work, and then you go see the movie anyway.
I’m surprised people were actually suggesting that Bale’s on-set rant would be good for this film.
When Mission Impossible III underperformed on opening weekend, all the talk was about how Tom Cruise’s real life antics may have hurt the film. And prior to the film’s release, no one was saying that it had been good publicity.
CutTheSpin,
I totally agree with your assessment of what went wrong with the film. If you are Ferris and Brancato then I think you guys are owed the biggest apology, because they’re trying to make you the fall guys here.
Everything you wrote I had already heard: McG being a total pussy and really losing control of the film early on (to those Halcyon pricks to Warner to Bale), Bale’s non-stop demands for more changes, Haggis’ crappy version (submitted days before the writers strike), etc.
ALL TRUE.
Understand this people: THIS $160 MILLION PICTURE* HAD NO FINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT WHEN SHOOTING ACTUALLY BEGAN! They were still writing EIGHT WEEKS after filming had begun. They were just making stuff up as they were going along.
McG spent the early days putting together all the special effects with Stan Winston (before he died) and there was never a story there. So in the end they were left to come up with a story that came partly from Ferris and Brancato’s version (the early stuff), the re-written stuff (that they were coming up with as the filming progressed) all designed to fit a series of special effects shots that were created in the spring. This is what they had to work with in the editing room! Did I mention this was a $160 million dollar picture*?
Throughout production (and in post) they would come up with some “awesome idea” that they would throw in: A T-800 that looked like Arnold (before they even had his permission), Linda Hamilton’s voice in the tapes, etc. Stuff they would just add-on later.
Then, a few months before release, Warners put their foot down and demanded that the film be PG-13. That forced McG (after all, what power did this guy actually have) to cut out some of the darker parts. Then Warner wanted it under 2 hours (so they could have more showtimes), therefore more cuts.
THIS IS NO WAY TO TELL A STORY!
That’s why the story here seems so disjointed and discombobulated. How could it have come out any other way?
Conclusion: there are many villains in the story of why and how this film went awry. The two people I think deserve the least blame here are Ferris and Brancato.
(* $160 million was the initial budget that went up to $190 MILLION during and after production with all these additions that were made throughout — new writers, Arnold allowing them to use his image, Linda Hamilton providing her voice)
Lately Bale acting has been shouting look at me Christian Bale I am a serious actor. I swear he should have been spoofed in Tropic Thunder. I hope he is different in Public Enemies.
Angels and Demons is a great thriller — if you are in the mood for a good adult thriller — it’s a must see.
McG is not the problem with terminator — it’s the story.
Um, you really thought Dance Flick had a genuinely funny trailer? Are you deaf and blind?!
@Deering
even comparing McG to Ratner is a disgrace. i have not seen one McG movie I actually liked. Maybe some of his TV Exec producing work is good, but he’s not directing that stuff.
Ratner did a good job with Rush Hour 1 and 2 I believe. McG should go back to music videos
For the first 30 of T4, I thought, “What is everyone talking about? This ain’t so bad …”
BUT
The last 30 minutes of T4 are utterly toxic. The action is recycled and implausible (a foundry? again? and why is the terminator not terminating, instead of WALKING and throwing John Conner into walls?), the story falls apart (back in time for what? who is who’s father?), and the character moments are contrived and melodramatic.
The sad part is how foreseeable this is. Any writer worth his salt could tell you this would be the outcome, and how to avoid it while having all the whizbang moments the audience wants. That’s his/her job. Good stories/ characters and blockbusters are not mutually exclusive.
And yet, nearly without fail, e.g. Wolverine, Angels & Demons, Star Trek, this is the outcome.
To those who point to the success of these three, I say, what if they had been good movies, not just good marketing campaigns? And I point to the failure of this movie. The ending is killing it’s box office.
The real TERMINATOR here is the studio development process.
T4 didn’t have to explain anything. If you watched the first three movies then you would now whats going on, just like Star Trek.
Don’t blame the actor and maybe the director. But if you didn’t the like the story then blame the screenwriters and studio execs.
I was a little worried about the film because McG directed Charlies Angels 2, that movie sucked!
Was anybody really crying out for another Terminator movie? And how long will it be before we have a “re-imagining” of the series?
Regarding T4 and all the flak it is receiving much of it unwarranted in my opinion. Maybe I went in with lower expectation than some and the reason I thought it was exciting mindless summer popcorn fare but it seems most have a vested interest in seeing that it fails not that I have a vested interest in seeing that it succeeds although I am one who would like to see another film in the series. I could remember when an opening weekend boxoffice of 30m was fantastic. Today, the expectations are 80m plus and if your not number one the film is considered a FLOP. yES, I know the film cost 200m plus marketing but I am sure the studio knew it was up against tough competition. Wolverine estimates are at 10m, Star Trek 28m, Angels and Demons 27m, and then you have the family film opening at well with 70m. That is a lot of boxoffice that went thataway and of course the critic consensus of 34 percent didn’t help and probably the kiss of death for the film but I am in the camp that thought the Critics were overly harsh on the film especially since they passed out 95% approval on Star Trek, and yes STrek was more audience friendly although if one wanted could negatively pick it apart much like the fanboys are doing T4. Maybe the Star Trek fanboys were afraid it would do better boxoffice than Star Trek. Relax. T4 won’t. Anyway, I just thought I would inserts my comments.
@Writer:
“The real TERMINATOR here is the studio development process.”
I’m not in the biz — not yet, anyway — but I think I see what you mean. A quick IMDB search reveals that T4 had *16* producers. Some “associate producers.” Some “executive producers.” One plain ol’ “producer.” one “co-producer.” one “post-production producer.”
Kafka would have a field day with these credits!! I hated T4, I thought it was a spectacular failure of a film, but on the other hand I guess I would challenge anyone to get a coherent product through that many layers of bureaucracy. I’m sure each producer-type wanted to leave his/her own “stamp” on the film, right?
By comparison, there were all of *5* producers on T2, and of those 5, two were director James Cameron himself and Gale Ann Hurd, who produced T1.
ANGELS & DEMONS surprisgly enjoyable. I hated THE DAVINCI CODE, and while A&D obviously shares the same theme of Vatican conspiracy nonsense, this one was mostly well done.
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2, more of the same from the first, although this one had Amy Adams (pretty and charming, as usual), and more importantly, Hank Azaria, who STEALS the movie outright. Very funny, unlike Stiller, who is really the straight man here. Oh well, everyone got PAID on this one. Good CGI.
Saw the first hour or so of the new TERMINATOR, and as someone else posted, it ain’t a Terminator movie without Arnold. Yes, I know, he does a “cameo”. Felt Bale, who can be great, was phoning it in and as far as Sam Worthington goes, doesn’t McG know that an actor has to maintain as accent scene to scene film, one way or the other? One minute he’s American, then he’s an Aussie. Sheesh!
Writer, I don’t have a problem with most of your comments, but why are you baggin on the end of T4 by asking why the Terminator was “walking”…I assume you mean as opposed to running towards Connor, T-800’s don’t run, they haven’t since the first movie.
Oh, and I like how people are still talking about the Bale rant thing as if they have never flown off the handle ever in their lives, just because the guy is an actor (a good one), doesn’t mean that he isn’t human.
Dance Flick was very funny and proves that if done correctly, the spoof genre makes a lot of sense. Low budgets that don’t require expensive stars…this took the bad taste out of my mouth left by Disaster Movie/Epic Movie and Date Movie. Friedburg and Seltzer are bad news, but the spoof genre itself can be wicked fun.
Angels & Demons was very good at times, if you’re willing to suspend disbelief.
And, of course, I’ll never see another Christian Bale movie. Just like I’ll never see another Mel Gibson movie.
I saw both T4 and Night @ the Museum 2. T4 was heartless and Museum 2 was brainless. Both sucked. Both Star Trek and Wolverine were better than either one of these two duds.
I’m not all that familiar with the Terminator franchise, but can someone answer this:
How does Skynet know Kyle Reese is the father?
Technically, it hasn’t happened yet since Kyle Reese hasn’t been sent back in time. So, in T4 terms, Kyle hasn’t fathered John.
Wouldn’t it only be possible that Skynet would know Kyle is John’s father after he is sent back to T1?
I agree with what some others have suggested.
To be successful a sequel (or prequel) must have some elements or characters from the original film.
T4 essentially carries nothing from the original save for a poorly constructed latex Arnold late in the film for 5 minutes.
It’s unfortunate that this amazing successful franchise has been gutted and left for dead. I doubt we’ll be seeing another one anytime soon.
Sean
Saw T4 with my son yesterday (He’s a big sci-fi fan). I thought the first half was okay.
But that 2nd half was horrid. All stupid and no plot. And the ripoff of Transformers was unforgivable. It was inane, non-sense, and poorly conceived. It did not serve the plot. Because if you can build giant robots to destroy the world, you don’t really need human beings for experiments at all! If I want to see Transformers I would go to a Transformers movie! (Which I probably will do, btw)
The character of Marcus Wright was FAR MORE interesting than John Connor (Christian Bale). But the plot contrivance to get rid of the character was all wrong and served simply to maintain Bale’s dominance of the movie franchise, should there be one, in the future.
“I’ll be back” is a sad tale for this movie going forward.
ps – The Arnie cameo actually worked.
To James B:
Thanks for those extra details (some I knew, some I didn’t). I think you agree that is helpful to shine a light on the process of creating in a corporate environment. Your insight is appreciated!
Uh, the original Terminators were fun. Remember that? It was good.
Now that I think about it – Bale was probably pissed off because he was stuck in a lousy movie. You can bet your ass that there will be a part 2 – cuz that’s what they do – only no McG – he’s one of the fall guys.
Night At The Museum really good family movie. LOVE IT
LOVED James B’s post… it’s why I come to this site so often– it’s fascinating to hear the details about how things really go down.
To the people who didn’t see this movie because Bale had a tantrum:
Get real. We expect actors to only emote when we say they can emote? This guy’s stock and trade is to FEEL and EMOTE. It’s his JOB. They spill over and get out and then everyone is mortified that the guy has REAL EMOTIONS? The same reason he got upset is the same reason he’s such a good actor. He’s not a robot, he’s a human being, and sometimes powerful emotions are hard to control.
I have a hunch that Universal and NBC are gonna see a HUGE downturn in profits when GM files for bankruptcy…