25-Years After His Painful Defeat Against Frank Zane, Arnold Schwarzenegger Went Through the Same Terrible Feeling Due to a Box Office Flop in 1993

Published 04/24/2023, 12:45 PM EDT

Throughout his movie career, Arnold Schwarzenegger has collaborated with James Cameron multiple times to produce iconic films. So when the Terminator actor teamed up with The Predator director John McTiernan for a second time, it excited moviegoers. The renowned filmmaker had thought of making a unique action film starring Schwarzenegger as Detective Jack Slater. The film also used meta-theatrical elements to parody popular action cinema tropes. However, the high-concept movie fell flat at the box office.

Schwarzenegger, whose box office value was riding high on the roaring success of Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), came plummeting down. Despite spending millions on promotion, The Last Action Hero (1993) failed, and Schwarzenegger sunk into despair. The turmoil inside him reminded him of a fateful night in 1968 when he lost against Frank Zane in a bodybuilding contest.

Arnold Schwarzenegger battled two different emotions

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In his autobiography, The Austrian Oak wrote that he and the team expected lower than anticipated ticket sales because of Jurrasic Park. “$15 million instead of the $20 million we’d predicted,” Schwarzenegger wrote. However, when Arnie heard people coming out of the theater saying, “‘It was actually pretty good”, I knew we were dead. Sure enough, on the second weekend, our box office dropped by 42 percent.”

According to the action cinema icon, it wasn’t enough for audiences to like a movie. “You can’t have people just like your movie, you need them to be passionate. Word of mouth is what makes movies big,” said Arnie. Further, the criticism went beyond the movie. “Writers attacked everything I’d ever done in movies,” wrote the actor. However, Schwarzenegger tried to deal with the despair he felt. He had enough projects lined up “to feel confident that one movie going in the toilet would have no impact on my career.”

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None of it mattered, however, as Arnie battled two voices in his head. “One was saying, ‘Godda**it, oh my God, this is terrible.’ And the other was saying, ‘Now let’s see what you are made of, Arnold,'” Schwarzenegger wrote in Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story. The seven-time Mr. Olympia likened the feeling, to losing the 1968 Mr. Universe contest against Frank Zane in Miami.

The Austrian Oak recounted his 1968 loss

The five-time Mr. Universe wrote, “(I was) beating myself up and trying to encourage myself at the same time,” after the box office disaster. Back in 1968, he had done the same thing after losing to Zane. At his first major contest after arriving in America, Schwarzenegger emerged victorious in the tall man class. To become champion, he had to beat the winner of the “short-men category,” Frank Zane.

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According to the former Mr. Olympia, a week before the 1968 Mr. Universe, Frank Zane had won the Mr. America in New York. Arnie recounted, “He’d shown up (in Miami) in the best shape of his career… perfectly proportioned, muscular, and cut up.” In 1968 Schwarzenegger was aware he’d lost some conditioning while waiting in London due to visa issues. And that was enough to dampen his expectations.

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However, the loss stunned Arnold Schwarzenegger. Just as he would feel 25 years down the line, “that night, despair came crashing in.” However, The Austrian Oak pulled himself back up on both occasions. After his 1968 defeat, Schwarzenegger won seven Mr. Olympias, and finally avenged his loss by defeating defending champion Frank Zane in 1980. Similarly, True Lies (1994) was a massive success, and Jingle All the Way (1996) remains a Christmas classic. Today, he continues to grow his “village” of fitness enthusiasts.

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Written by:

Sagnik Bagchi is a sports writer at EssentiallySports who specializes in American sports. He has a deep understanding of combat sports, gymnastics, and weightlifting. He holds a Master's Degree in English Literature from a top university.

Edited by:

Anupama Ghosh

25-Years After His Painful Defeat Against Frank Zane, Arnold Schwarzenegger Went Through the Same Terrible Feeling Due to a Box Office Flop in 1993

Arnold Schwarzenegger battled two different emotions

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The Austrian Oak recounted his 1968 loss