 Gillinator's Salvation Report: International Box-Office!
Plus, Ride the Six Flags Salvation Coaster!
Reported By: The Gillinator
Monday, June 29, 2009
While Terminator Salvation, now in release for over a month, is still struggling to get to $125 million in the U.S. (and is now gone from many theaters), the rest of the world is eating it up as it stayed #1 in 30 territories despite other big movies like "The Hangover" being released. Foreign box-office has now crossed $200 million after 3-4 weeks. The reviews coming in from other countries have even been generally kinder and more positive about the movie, seeing it as a very solid, fun summer action film. So McG can now relax a bit and be assured he will likely be asked to make T5. Our message boards have been pretty active with debate over whether this is a good thing or not-- Mark even wrote a post comparing McG to Bill Paxton's used car salesman in True Lies! I can understand being upset with some of the decisions McG made and over-selling some aspects of the film, and I will still be nervous about how he takes on T5, but let's hope he learns from his mistakes and paid attention to what the fans did like (hint: get real writers and more ARNOLD!).
But are we also being too critical of T4? I have now seen T4 for the third time with some friends who hadn't seen it yet, and they all really enjoyed it for what it was. I also am enjoying it more each time I see it. It really is a great spectacle with some nice nuances throughout, and a good director's cut could fix a lot of its issues. I would love to see the original planned ending where Marcus becomes the new John Connor after John dies, but that was never even filmed thanks to the internet leak and people's negative reaction to it. Sometimes the internet is fans' own worst enemy, since many people now would've prefered to see that ending than the heart transplant one they ended up with.
The new Terminator Salvation rollercoaster opened at Six Flags Magic Mountain, but if you're like me and live too far away to make it there, you can get an idea of what it's like going through the line and riding it with some videos from lifthill.com. Click on the image to go there.
The coaster itself seems OK but nothing special, but you can see the budget went mostly into the experience in line leading up to it, where you walk through the Skynet factory with T-800s lined up and watch videos featuring Common and Moon Bloodgood who as we reported filmed original content for the ride. It's typical of the kind of thing you'd see while in line at theme parks- "We need to get those people out of there!" and so on, but still adds to the experience.
Now Transformers 2 is out and easily passed $200 mil in less than a week, though reviews have been equally if not more harsh than they were towards T4. Even if they didn't like T4, they say it's like a sophisticated arthouse film compared to Transformers. I have not seen it, but according to Randy, who loved the first one, "Transformers 2 sucks." But still, Michael Bay is laughing at the reviews on his way to his Scrooge McDuck sized vault filled with gold and souls of our collective childhoods.
This may be the last Salvation Report for a while, at least until the DVD/blu-ray release gets closer or more info on T5 comes to light. Such a long buildup and then it's over! Don't worry, the Gillinator will be getting back to more stories from the Classic which have yet to be told, and my adventure in Astoria!
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The Gillinator
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