Arnold Schwarzenegger played a cyborg sent back in time by an all-powerful AI called Skynet. Maximum Film / Alamy Stock Photo by Tom F.A Watts, Royal Holloway University of London October 26, 2024 marked the 40th anniversary of director James Cameron’s science fiction classic, The Terminator – a fil...
Did you not read the article? It was regarded as a B-movie when it came out: a low-budget sci-fi slasher/horror film. Arnold referred to it as a B-movie when asked about it on the set of Conan the Barbarian (which had 3 times the budget as Terminator). The New York Times referred to it as a B-movie in its review, as discussed by this article, which is also why the headline uses quotes around "B-movie."
I too was shocked and a bit offended that it was called a B movie. But the budget was a freaking measly $6.4 million.
That's peanuts even back in 1984. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terminator
Indeed they accomplished a lot, an all time classic movie. Some of my friends were a bit critical about the stop motion not being very good in their opinion. But I just thought the movie was amazing.
Unpopular opinion: too big budget gives a bad movie. Lower budgets forces people to be more creative and keeps the suits away that would otherwise make it a designs by committee.
James Cameron has a history of making great things happen with a low budget, and spending millions responsibly to actually make a positive difference in big budget films.