‘Terminator 2’ will be back in 2016 — in 3-D
Writer-director James Cameron said he was working with Beijing-based DMG Entertainment and rights holder Studiocanal to create the re-release of the sci-fi classic
Twenty-five years after Terminator 2: Judgment Day hit cinemas, a three-dimensional version is coming to the big screen in 2016.
Writer-director James Cameron said, on Wednesday, he was working with Beijing-based DMG Entertainment and rights holder Studiocanal to create the re-release of the sci-fi classic. The new version will debut in mainland China, where 3-D re-releases of films including Cameron’s Titanic and Jurassic Park have proven popular.
“Next year marks the 25th anniversary of Terminator 2 and that seemed like the perfect time to bring it back but this time in an all-new 3-D version,” Cameron said in a statement announcing the deal.
The Terminator series and Arnold Schwarzenegger are well-known among Chinese film fans, though T2 never had a theatrical release in the country; in 1991, Western films were still not being imported into the Communist-run nation.
Last summer’s Terminator Genisys, directed by Alan Taylor, performed better in China than in the United States. The Paramount Pictures/Skydance production earned about $90 million (Dh330.48 million) stateside but more than $112 million in China; in total the film grossed about $440 million worldwide.
Terminator 2 was a much bigger hit, commercially and critically. At the time, it was one of the most expensive movies ever made, with a budget of approximately $100 million.
T2 won four Oscars, including best visual effects, and grossed about $520 million worldwide — the equivalent of $904 million today after adjusting for inflation.
“T2 blew me away when I first saw it. For a whole new generation of fans, it is truly a chance to see the movie that really set the bar for action and effects that all the movies today are trying to top, in a completely new way — in the theatre and in 3-D,” said Dan Mintz, chief executive of DMG.
The 3-D version of Cameron’s Titanic, released in 2012, earned $285 million outside North America — with about $145 million from China alone, more than double what the re-release earned in the United States.
