Terminator Salvation was one of my most anticipated films of the year. Unfortunately, it did not live up to the hype for myself and many other Terminator fans, let alone the critics who tore it apart in the plethora of negative reviews found online and in print everywhere.

While the movie is still just opening in many of the foreign markets, its financial performance in theaters is a clear disappointment for director McG and the studio. I wonder if they’re still considering forming a trilogy out of it…

The movie opened on May 21st in North America to bring in around $42.5 million, significantly less than its monthly competitors in Star Trek, Up and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. A big factor in this is the fact that it opened on the date as Night of the Museum 2 which devoured the family segment of the moviegoers that weekend and ended up being the number one film, beating out the fourth Terminator installment.

That being said, I’m sure the awful reviews of the film didn’t help it much either. On Rotten Tomatoes, Terminator Salvation is sitting at 34% and as of today, Terminator Salvation has only brought in around $120 million worldwide while its production budget was $200. It’ll still bring in more with its foreign releases but its near done in its key markets with new films opening every week taking the viewers away.

For instance, this weekend we had Up and Drag Me to Hell open to fantastic reviews and positive fan reception and next weekend we have a pair of new comedies, so I can’t see many people going to see T4 now with all the other options and Star Trek still traveling at warp speed.

Is the moral of the story that Terminator needs Arnold Schwarzenegger as the lead? Many fans thought that leading up to Salvation and it seems the Studio now thinks that too with their most recent act of desperation to bring in more fans to see the flick. The latest TV spot for the movie reveals one of the surprise treats of the movie that wasn’t really a big surprise for those following updates for the movie online. That surprise is a cameo by Arnold, digitally added to the classic T-800 unit for a short scene in the film.

I guess its no longer a spoiler anymore since it is in the TV commercials - Check it out for yourself:

Don't be fooled by this - What you see in the trailer is pretty much all the screen time he gets in the movie.

It’s too bad this film wasn’t better. It looked polished and finished unlike Wolverine but there was so little to it and none of the interesting plots were explored. Instead, a bunch of set pieces and action sequences were just thrown together with big special effects and references here and there to try and tie it in with the prior films.

If there’s another one, I hope we get a big improvement.

Can Christian Bale truly sell a movie on his own like Arnold could? What do you think of the TV spot showing off Arnold and the idea of another Terminator movie?

Sources: Box Office Mojo, Trailer Addict