Despite being a genuinely awful movie, Terminator Genisys exploded at the Chinese box office, earning one of the biggest single days for an American film there in history. Yes, in a complete stunner, the film started off better than Universal’s Jurassic World.
Paramount and Skydance’s Genisys was a true summer flop at the domestic box office, grossing just $27 million when it opened on July 4 weekend. Since then, it has only grossed $89.1 million in total in North America. That disappointment put the franchise’s future in question and made Paramount reluctant to greenlight another Terminator film, even though one is scheduled for May 19, 2017. (Another is scheduled for June 29, 2018.)
But Arnold Schwarzenegger is still a major draw overseas and the film has grossed $264 million from foreign territories. Genisys opened in China this weekend and grossed $27.4 million in its first day alone, notes Forbes. It even made $2.2 million in midnight screenings alone.
Both of those numbers are better than Jurassic World, which made $17.7 million in its first day and $1.1 million in midnight previews. The numbers also gave Genisys the fourth-best debut for a Hollywood movie in Chinese box office history.
While there’s still a chance that Genisys could fall off in China if it doesn’t have legs, it could still easily hit $400 million worldwide without hitting $100 million in North America.
Genisys was directed by Alan Taylor and also stars Emilia Clarke, Jason Clarke and Jai Courtney.
image courtesy of Paramount