Terminator Genisys could still get a sequel after big debut in China

The latest entry in the long-running Terminator franchise has just arrived in cinemas in China and it’s making a lot of money.

Terminator Genisys made $210,000 at the US box office this weekend, seven weeks after it’s initial release.

That pretty much signals the end of its disappointing domestic run which kicked off with a dready $27 million opening weekend back at the beginning of July.

These figures sounded like the death knell for the long-running franchise, which started with the original movie back in 1984, but it might not be over just yet.

That’s because Genisys just debuted at the Chinese box office and made $27.4 million in a single night.

Yup - that’s more than its entire opening weekend in the States and brings its total box office count around the worled to over $350 million.

Once we get final weekend figures from China that should go up even more, pushing the foreign earnings way above the measly $89 mill it earned in America.

One possible reason for this surge is that it comes after the summer movie blackout in China - where no foreign films are permitted to be released in cinemas.

Local audiences were excited by the chance to see an American picture on the big screen again, in a country where non-domestic offerings are strictly limited and often harsly censored.

Genisys didn’t go the route of having a random Chinese character plugged into the narrative but Arnie did go on a huge publicity tour of the country in recent weeks.

The Chinese release should see Genisys push past $400 million worldwide - that’s hardly a smash hit but with a production budget of $155 million its not a total disaster.

The filmmakers have promised they have a plan in place to bring some clarity to the many awkward plot points in Genisys so hopefully that’s something we’ll get to see someday.

Terminator Genisys already has two sequels planned for May 2017 and June 2019 - let’s see how that pans out.