Terminator Box Office: Every Film's Gross, Budget and Series Total

The six Terminator films have grossed $2.10 billion worldwide, of which $673 million came from the United States and Canada and $1.43 billion from the rest of the world, using Box Office Mojo figures except The Terminator's $6.4 million budget and $40 million international gross, which come from The Numbers. Every number below is nominal, meaning it is the total reported for each film's run, not an opening weekend and not adjusted for inflation.

The highest grossing Terminator film is Terminator 2: Judgment Day, released in 1991 and directed by James Cameron. It earned $519 million on a $102 million budget, which is about 5.1 times its cost. The Terminator (1984), also directed by Cameron, remains the most efficient of the set: a $6.4 million production that returned $78.4 million, about 12.2 times its budget.

The three films after Cameron's first two sit in a tight band, and the sixth sits below them. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), directed by Jonathan Mostow, made $433 million. Terminator Salvation (2009), directed by McG, made $371 million. Terminator Genisys (2015), directed by Alan Taylor, made $441 million, which makes it the second biggest earner in the series despite a domestic total of only $90 million. Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), directed by Tim Miller, made $261 million worldwide, the lowest total of the five sequels.

Box Office Mojo and The Numbers disagree on two figures: Terminator 3's budget ($200 million versus $170 million) and The Terminator's domestic gross ($38.4 million versus $38.0 million). The table follows Box Office Mojo on both.

Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in five of the six films and did not star in Terminator Salvation. For the stories behind each release, start with Terminator movies or the Terminator movies in order guide.

Terminator: Dark Fate is the only clear box office flop in the Terminator series, grossing $261 million worldwide on a $185 million budget, about 1.4 times its cost. Its domestic total of $62 million is the lowest of the five films after the original. Studios also split ticket money with theaters and spend heavily on marketing, so a film that earns only 1.4 times its production budget usually loses money in theaters. The case is more striking because the film reunited Linda Hamilton and Schwarzenegger on screen for the first time in 28 years, yet it still earned less than Terminator 3 or Salvation.

Terminator: Dark Fate, the sixth film often searched as Terminator 6, was a box office flop by the numbers, underperforming against its $185 million budget. By comparison, Salvation returned about 1.9 times its $200 million budget and Terminator 3 about 2.2 times, which means both were more comfortable results even though neither is remembered fondly by every fan.

Genisys is the interesting middle case. Overseas audiences carried Terminator Genisys, which took about 80 percent of its $440.6 million outside the United States and Canada, against a domestic gross of just $90 million. It returned about 2.8 times its $155 million budget, which makes it the best performer of the post Cameron era on that measure. Overseas money mattered across the series: Dark Fate drew about 76 percent of its gross from abroad, and Terminator 3 about 65 percent.

The early films tell the opposite story about efficiency. Terminator 2 cost 16 times what the first film did, and it still tops any Terminator box office comparison on raw gross. Terminator 2: Judgment Day returned about 5.1 times its budget, against 12.2 times for The Terminator.

There is no box office to report for the next film. A new Terminator from James Cameron is in development with no studio, director, cast or release date announced, so follow the new Terminator movie page for any change. To see whether the money matched the quality, compare these totals with the Terminator movies ranked list.