Reel Facts & Opinions: The Schwarzenegger Bomb

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return to the big screen arrived with an Austrian Oak-sized thud this past weekend, earning a miserable $6.3 million domestically, good enough for tenth place at the box office. The action film, THE LAST STAND, which was his first leading-role in nearly a decade after entering politics, was in essence a probe; sent out to test the waters for future Arnold films and franchises which includes a third CONAN film, a fifth TERMINATOR flick, and a possible sequel to TWINS (1988).

The box office failure of THE LAST STAND questions the possibility of future big-budget flicks with Arnold as the leading man, and also has fans and critics wondering what went wrong with the iconic actor whose films once always delivered the moolah. Defenders of the film are quick to point out that recent events have now put us into a more gun-shy America which will now veer away from violent films. However, the financial success by recent pro-violent films such as ZERO DARK THIRTY and DJANGO UNCHAINED says otherwise. Heck, even the critically drubbed GANGSTER SQUAD with all of its Tommy-Guns finished in fourth place in its second week of release.

So what happened? Smart moviegoers know that January and February are the traditional dumping-grounds for bad movies. No matter who the star is people know there isn’t much quality to see in these months, so they simply don’t buy a ticket. And the reason why it was released in this time of the year is that it is indeed a lousy movie. The critics gave it its rightful drubbing, and the negative word-of-mouth which followed kept people away.

There is also a possible cold hard truth; Arnold isn’t a box office hit anymore. Prior to entering his political career, his last eight movies ranged from mixed to outright stink; TERMINATOR 3, COLLATERAL DAMAGE, THE 6^TH DAY, END OF DAYS, BATMAN & ROBIN, JINGLE ALL THE WAY, ERASER, and JUNIOR. In fact, you have to go all the way back to James Cameron’s TRUE LIES (1994) to find Arnold’s last good film. An argument could be made that he has picked up his career right where he left off; making crap. And all this doom and gloom for the nearly 66-year old action star doesn’t bode well for two other older fellas who are trying to keep their shoot-em-up film careers firing; Sylvester Stallone’s BULLET TO THE HEAD and Bruce Willis’ fifth DIE HARD film both open in the month of (ahem) February.

But Arnold and his pals shouldn’t be completely written off. If THE LAST STAND proved anything, it’s that the big guy still has the charisma and physical chops to provide entertainment. But what made his earlier films so successful is that he worked with good directors who knew exactly how to utilize him; James Cameron, James McTiernan, John Milus, and Paul Verhoeven practically built their films around him. Granted, we are into a new generation of filmmakers now, but hopefully Arnold can link himself up with the right ones who know how to utilize him, and give him and his fans the deserved quality.  Just make good movies.

What say you?