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Official Trailer

The Terminator(1984)
Released
1984 · FILM

The Terminator

A waitress in 1984 Los Angeles must survive a relentless cyborg assassin from the future with the help of a mysterious soldier who claims time travel is real.

“Your future is in its hands.”

Directed by
James Cameron, Betsy Magruder
Written by
James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd
Rated
MPA · R
Runtime
107 min
ActionAdventureSci-Fi
Streaming on
  • HBO Max

Synopsis

In a post-apocalyptic future, tyrannical supercomputers send a cyborg assassin known as the "Terminator" back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, whose unborn son is destined to lead a resistance against the 21st-century mechanical regime. At the same time, the human resistance sends a lone warrior to protect Sarah. The story follows his efforts to stop the nearly indestructible killing machine.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Writers
Directors

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

A crew of 190+ credited

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Mark GoldblattShot by Adam GreenbergScored by Brad FiedelDesigned by Maria CasoSound by Tom Bellfort Nm0068938Costumes by Hilary WrightStunts by Ken Fritz

Box Office

1984 · Box office

💰 Box-office hit — grossed 12× its budget

Why 2.5×?

Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).

Worldwide gross

$78.4M

Budget$6.4M
Worldwide gross$78.4M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $38.4M — 49% of worldwide · International: $40.0M (51%)

Opening weekend: $4.0M — 10% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.

Opening week (7-day): $5.6M — 14% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 1,005 theaters

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Full synopsis

Also known as

  • Terminatorde
  • Terminatorfr
  • (English)The Terminator
Release dates around the world3 countries · show
  • CanadaOct 26, 1984
  • TürkiyeOct 26, 1984
  • United StatesOct 26, 1984

Companies

ProductionHemdale, Pacific Western Productions, Euro Film Funding

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