James Cameron became the first director to have three of the five highest-grossing movies, including the Avatar franchise and Titanic. Followed by the enormous success of Avatar 2, the director has started working on the upcoming films in the science fiction franchise. However, this is not his first successful franchise. The 68-year-old director also laid the foundation for the popular sci-fi franchise, Terminator.
However, despite the massive success of the first two films, the director did not return to direct the threequel. The conflicts regarding the franchise’s rights led Cameron to step away from the threequel after he had planned the whole thing. And this could be the reason why he had mixed feelings about the 2003 film in the franchise.
James Cameron Had Mixed Feelings About Terminator 3
The 1984 film, The Terminator went on to top the box office charts after its release, and James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger gained recognition for their work in the film. Its sequel also marked its presence at the box office and is still considered one of the best science fiction films ever.
However, the Titanic director diverted from the franchise after the 1991 sequel. He did not direct any Terminator films after the sequel. The threequel was directed by Jonathan Mostow featuring the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the lead. Being a good friend of Cameron, the Commando star had an idea about how he felt toward Terminator 3.
According to Black Film, Schwarzenegger believed Cameron had mixed feelings about the movie. He shared that a part of the Avatar director wanted the film to succeed as he started the franchise. But a part of him also wished for its failure, as he “didn’t want to be part of it under those constraints.”.
The film did pretty well at the box office, grossing $433 million worldwide. And although Cameron admitted that a part of him wanted the film to fail, he was glad it succeeded at the box office.
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James Cameron Admits He Wanted Terminator 3 to Fail
After the success of Terminator 2, James Cameron reportedly started working on ideas for a threequel in the franchise. However, things fell apart after Mario Kassar and Andy Vajna made a bid for the franchise’s rights, and the Aliens director started losing interest in the film. Although Fox was still willing to buy the rights, they also announced that they would not be making this film without The Terminator director.
He admitted that somewhere he wanted the film to fail. During an interview with MovieWeb, he shared, “There was a small part of me that hoped it wasn’t good – but another part of me hoped it succeeded.” However, he was glad the film did well.
He praised Jonathan Mostow and Arnold Schwarzenegger for their work in the film. “Jonathan’s made a really great movie. Arnold’s in great form. I really like what he’s done with it,” Cameron said. The Oscar-winning director did return to the franchise as a producer for Terminator: Dark Fate.
James Cameron’s The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day are available on HBO Max.
Source: CheatSheet
