James Cameron has made a habit of pointing and laughing in the faces of his detractors over the decades, and we’ll see if the naysayers end up with egg on their faces when Avatar: The Way of Water finally comes to theaters next weekend. The filmmaker already knows a thing or two about expensive sequels coming under pre-emptive fire, with Terminator 2: Judgement Day the obvious example.
The 1984 original was a lean and mean sci-fi thriller that cost a thrifty $6.4 million to produce, and ultimately secured a reputation as an all-time classic. For the second installment, Cameron sought to up the ante in every way imaginable, which ended up with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return as the iconic cybernetic organism becoming the movie industry’s first $100 million feature.
These days, anyone in their right mind would accept T2 as one of the best sci-fi flicks, action blockbusters, and sequels ever made, but questions were being asked over the exorbitant production costs. As it turns out, a fascinating fact shared on social media has revealed just how costly Judgement Day ended up being compared to its predecessor.
In total, Terminator 2‘s $102 million budget is almost exactly 16 times more than that of its predecessor, but you can’t say that every penny isn’t right up there on the screen. From the explosive practical effects to the cutting-edge CGI, it ended up being well worth the investment – although we’ll see if that remains true more than 30 years later when it comes to Cameron’s ongoing adventures in Pandora.
