8 Reasons Why The Terminator Franchise Is Dead

23 years ago, Terminator 2, James Cameron's sequel to his unexpectedly popular The Terminator, grossed an almost-unprecedented $520 million at the worldwide box office. Cut to today, and Alan Taylor's Terminator Genisys stands at less than $300 million after three weeks on release, struggling to even make back the total of its production and marketing costs. It's quite a fall from grace for what was once one of the pre-eminent science fiction movie franchises; what's more, Genisys has also prompted the worst critical evaluation of any Terminator film to date. After five films, including two attempted reboots (Salvation and Genisys), the future of the series appears more dire than ever. It's now up to Paramount and Skydance Productions to decide how they'll proceed with those proposed sequels to Genisys. Pitched as the first in a new trilogy, and with an ending left wide open for follow-ups, Genisys is primed as a franchise kick-starter, with producers no doubt hoping they'll hit better pay dirt with those planned Terminator movies scheduled for 2017 and 2018. At this point, however, whether the saga will even be allowed to continue and keep haemorrhaging money at all seems highly doubtful. Here are eight reasons why the Terminator franchise is basically already dead.