‘Terminator Salvation’ is a Hit…Overseas

Posted by Dr. Cole Abaius (cole.abaius@filmschoolrejects.com) on June 8, 2009

I keep hearing all this talk about coming together and loving one another, and then the rest of the world goes and does a thing like this. I thought we had an agreement, rest of the planet. After opening fairly strongly its first weekend, Terminator Salvation, took a huge dip and is currently stacking bills around the $105 million mark after three weekends of a domestic run. For a film of its budget and buzz level, it’s more than a little disappointing.

But the international box office is delivering a silver lining that might give some hope to the executives over at Sony and Halcyon.

The picture picked up an additional $67.5 million for its international opening, taking the top spot, and earning the third highest international opening of the year so far (third only to Angels & Demons and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Now, it’s up to the film’s word-of-mouth and traditional ad buy to convince movie-goers in other markets to head back to the theater next weekend.

According to Variety, the gross international is right at $97 million. After doing a little math, and taking a break because my brain hurt, that’s just $8 million behind its domestic counterpart. Basically, Salvation has made almost as much money overseas in a third of the time it took to get here.

It’s often the case that international box office matches domestic, but it’s looking like this film might end up being a massively stronger international presence, which isn’t at all a bad thing. Especially for execs who don’t care if the money coming in is in Euros or Yen.

A lot of news outlets are still debating whether or not there will be a follow-up to the film, and there’s a good chance there will be despite numbers. But it’s a bit telling that Sony didn’t announce a sequel after the opening weekend aftermath. I’m sure they are still evaluating the situation, and if the flick continues to do well overseas, it might just bolster the argument for another installment. Even if they have to produce it in French. Or, you know, English.

What do you think?

Read more articles by Dr. Cole Abaius