Films studios bank on reboots to challenge streaming services
The Eighties are back with two new film franchises creating a huge buzz as the film industry fights back against the existential threat posed by streaming services. And that buzz is set to filter through other important spheres for popular culture, such as casino gaming.
Tom Cruise returns in Top Gun: Maverick, while Arnold Schwarzenegger is reprising his role as the Terminator in Terminator 7: End of War. Information about Terminator 7: End of War is pretty thin on the ground, but we do know that Linda Hamilton will be joining 74-year-old Schwarzenegger and a teaser trailer has dropped, which is certain to whet the appetite of fans of the Terminator franchise.
Terminator innovations reach the casino
The popularity of the Terminator franchise has also led to innovations in other areas of the entertainment industry. The iGaming sector features the officially branded slot game Terminator Genisys, which has been inspired by the 2015 film and features Kyle Reese, Sarah Connor, and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator. In this slot game, which is just one of many slots online with jackpots at Paddy Power, the Terminator wild features the iconic T-800’s glaring red eye. These branded slots work in the same way as film reboots which attract fans of the franchise both new and old.
The Terminator franchise began with the film The Terminator in 1984 and there has been a constant supply of reboots and iterations ever since. Terminator 2: Judgment Day followed in 1991 and the latest of the six films, Terminator: Dark Fate, was released in 2019. A TV series, entitled Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, starred Lena Headey and Thomas Dekker and ran for 31 episodes from 2008 to 2009. News of the long-awaited release of Terminator 7 has already contributed to speculation about potential actors, who could fill the roles alongside Schwarzenegger.
’80s favourite fuels fresh box office success
And Terminator is not the only film to be given an update. The original Top Gun film was released two years after Terminator in 1986 and 36 years later Tom Cruise is back in his role as Lt. Captain Pete Mitchell, also known as Maverick, in the 2022 film Top Gun: Maverick.
This time, 59-year-old Cruise returns as a flight instructor, providing training to a new generation of pilots including Miles Teller as Lieutenant Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, the son of Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, who died in the original film and Jennifer Connelly who plays Penelope “Penny” Benjamin. There is also a moving scene with Val Kilmer, who played Cruise’s nemesis Ice in the original movie.
The film, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, is already a box office success, making £196 million in the United States on the opening weekend, which is the first time Cruise has ever made over £100 million on the first weekend following the release of a film.
Film studios have recognised the attraction of reboots of classic films which create nostalgia for fans of the originals while introducing new fans to the film franchise. New iterations of classic films are invariably lucrative and the hype created by these big film studio releases is a useful weapon in the armoury to combat the threat posed by streaming services such as Netflix.
