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Terminator 2 returns to theaters at 35, and the sequel nearly never happened

9/1/2026

StudioCanal is bringing Terminator 2: Judgment Day back to theaters this weekend, timing the re-release to the film's 35th anniversary and to August 29, the date James Cameron's franchise designated as the fictional nuclear holocaust of 1997.

The case for a theatrical re-release is clear. What complicates the occasion is that Judgment Day itself was never inevitable: its production required untangling a legal situation that had blocked a sequel for years.

Nobody expected the original 1984 Terminator to perform. Against a $6.4 million budget, it earned $78 million at the box office. It did not create a production path.

Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted a sequel; Cameron was occupied with other projects, including Aliens in 1986.