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[Raistlin]

$30m for these rights is a wildly overinflated price for such a stale franchise.

The network TV series? A solid performer but cancelled after 2 seasons.

The big film reboot? Underperformed.

The film tie in video game? Flopped.

The Terminator franchise at this point is incredibly tired. It needs to go away and find a way to make itself exciting again to it's target audience. Otherwise, in terms of future films, we're looking at a potential 'reboot of a reboot'? Pfft. What a waste of time and money.

It seems to me that this move is more of an investment than an actual effort to make more films in the Terminator universe. I fully expect these rights to just sit on a shelf for a few years and then be sold on for a profit or for absolute peanuts.

Underperformed? Maybe. However, it still grossed nearly $400 million. That's hardly a dead series.

http://boxofficemojo.com/showdowns/chart/?id=vs-terminator.htm

 

[gdt]

Underperformed? Maybe. However, it still grossed nearly $400 million. That's hardly a dead series.

http://boxofficemojo.com/showdowns/chart/?id=vs-terminator.htm

What was the budget again? Plus marketing?

Yeah.

 

[Fox Mulder]

How is Star Trek a not a full reboot? Same characters, yes, but an entirely new timeline and significantly different character backstories. I wouldn't consider myself a Trekkie by any means, so please, enlighten me.

well, the recent Star Trek movie just split off into its own timeline. The original timeline that we all know from the previous series and movies is still around after the split. Romulus is acknowledged as being destroyed as told in the new movie, and Spock and Nero went through a black hole.

Official stuff like Star Trek Online continues the story of the original timeline, while movies will obviously take place in the new one. It's a convenient way of freshening up the franchise for a new audience, without completely ignoring the fans that were around for everything prior to it.

 

[numble]

What was the budget again? Plus marketing?

Yeah.

When you put it all on the balance sheet, does it net more than 29.5 million? If so, it is a potentially positive investment.

 

[Cimarron]

I dunno.. T3 and T4 wasn't terrible.

 

[gdt]

When you put it all on the balance sheet, does it net more than 29.5 million? If so, it is a potentially positive investment.

Yeah, but a studio isn't looking for a $10million profit.

That $29.5million price tags is solely because of T1/2.

 

[Puddles]

Why build a terminator with a human heart? The heart is a pretty fallible organ. Why would you want that powering advanced machinery?

Tony Stark had the right idea.

 

[numble]

Yeah, but a studio isn't looking for a $10million profit.

I'm sure they think they can make much more than that. The movies underperformed, but it's not like they were barely breaking even.

 

[gdt]

I'm sure they think they can make much more than that. The movies underperformed, but it's not like they were barely breaking even.

Thats exactly what happened.

From T4 Wiki:

Budget $200 million
Gross revenue $372,046,055

That doesn't include marketing BTW. Lets say $100million in marketing.

So, $72 is left. Of which the studio DOES NOT get all of.

It wasn't a success at all.

 

[numble]

Thats exactly what happened.

From T4 Wiki:

Budget$200 million
Gross revenue $372,046,055

That is $10 million profit?

 

[gdt]

That is $10 million profit?

Sorry, posted it before finishing my post. I edited it.

 

[Raistlin]

What was the budget again? Plus marketing?

Yeah.

I'm going to guess marketing wasn't $172,046,055.

Yeah.

 

[gdt]

I'm going to guess marketing wasn't $172,046,055.

Yeah.

Okay, conservatively, the studio earned...$50million (I'd go lower, but ehh) from a major summer blockbuster, starring BATMAN, and hyped and marketed to high fuck.

THATS NOTHING. Not even worth the effort to make such a huge summer movie.

 

[numble]

Thats exactly what happened.

From T4 Wiki:

Budget $200 million
Gross revenue $372,046,055

That doesn't include marketing BTW. Lets say $100million in marketing.

So, $72 is left. Of which the studio DOES NOT get all of.

It wasn't a success at all.

Even $72 is over 2x $30, and it doesn't include DVD sales. There are movies that bomb and put a studio in the negative--Land of the Lost didn't even make up it's budget at the box office, when not including marketing, etc. There are far more movies in the red.

 

[gdt]

Even $72 is over 2x $30, and it doesn't include DVD sales. There are movies that bomb and put a studio in the negative--Land of the Lost didn't even make up it's budget at the box office, when not including marketing, etc. There are far more movies in the red.

Oh yeah, I'm not arguing that the studio didn't make it's money back, I'm arguing that it severly underperformed and crawled past breaking even.

 

[hsin]

I agree with a reboot of the series. I'd like to explore the future war aspect without McG's input.

T5 produced by James Cameron in REAL D, written by Gary Whitta, DiCaprio as John Connor.

Make it happen!

 

[Ripclawe]

There is something really shady on how this deal went down but I can't put a finger on it.

 

[ryutaro's mama]

I'm so glad Cameron didn't spend one penny on those rights.

Let everyone else try and chase T1 and T2.

And fail, like clockwork.

 

[Pctx]

Sam shouldve been Conor and Bale shouldve been the god damn terminator. Fuck McG and his fucking vision. I still own it on blu Ray but fuck!

 

[kazuo]

James Cameron has stated repeatedly he has no interest in doing another "Terminator" film.

The main problem with the franchise is you can only take it so far unless you travel into "Back to the Future"-style ridiculous time-travel territory.

I've said it a million times, and I will say it again: the only place left for the series to go is a final film that "completes" the cycle begun by the first and second movie.

Don't follow me?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novikov_self-consistency_principle

T3 essentially followed this principle, but the execution (read: the film) was so fucking shitty that no one cared.

Had T3 been a good film, it probably would have been fine. But it wasn't. That said, you could probably keep T3 as canon and make a final film during the future war, and said film ends with John Connon jumping through time to save Sarah.

THE END.

 

[Barberetti]

I don't see the rationale behind this. The original movies still exist, its not like by remaking them they remove all trace of the previous movie. I don't gain or lose anything if they remake a movie why does it matter so much?

I don't see why people can't be satisfied with a story when it's been presented to them as was meant to be by its creator. The vast majority of Terminator fans are satisfied with the story told over the first 2 Terminator films, and the way it was presented. There's no need for it to be retold. For the ones who think it should be, where does the film studio draw the line? How many reboots do you think it would take before everyone else is satisfied? Why should a film studio waste their time and money catering for this minority?

 

[selig]

Pretty much this. I really liked Salvation a lot. Great action movie.

the fact that every goddam time a terminator grabbed someone´s leg he would throw him around instead of pressing the flesh and bones into oblivion ruined the movie for me.

 

[WrikaWrek]

Thats exactly what happened.

From T4 Wiki:

Budget $200 million
Gross revenue $372,046,055

That doesn't include marketing BTW. Lets say $100million in marketing.

So, $72 is left. Of which the studio DOES NOT get all of.

It wasn't a success at all.

So what? All that says is, make a better movie with a lesser budget. It doesn't need 200 million, it certainly didn't look 200 million.

You can do a great Terminator movie for 120 million.

 

[K' Dash]

I loved Salvation

 

[gdt]

So what? All that says is, make a better movie with a lesser budget. It doesn't need 200 million, it certainly didn't look 200 million.

You can do a great Terminator movie for 120 million.

I wasn't really arguing otherwise...

 

[daxter01]

why spend 200 mil for terminator huh?

 

[Costanza]

The Terminator rights sale saga just keeps on going. At the beginning of this week, Sony and Lionsgate were jointly bidding for the rights to the Terminator franchise. They lost out to Pacificor, the hedge fund that had loaned money to Halcyon to buy the Terminator rights in the first place, before calling in the debt which caused the rights to go up for sale.

If you think about that for a second, it looks kinda fishy. Sony and Lionsgate think so. Lawyers for Sony say that their bid was the best one, but that Halcyon and Pacificor had struck a deal last Friday, essentially rigging the sale in favor of the hedge fund. But now there’s a new wrinkle. After some negotiation, Sony and Lionsgate have been given an option to negotiate to produce and distribute the next Terminator film.

An update to an LA Times article on the ongoing process provides the key info.The paper says,

Despite the rancor in court, Sony and Lions Gate have been given an exclusive window by Pacificor to negotiate to produce and distribute the next “Terminator” movie, according to a person familiar with the talks.

Which means, basically, that Pacificor has really done a nice job here. They own the rights and pull the strings, and have left the hard work — actually making and releasing another movie — to other companies. Good work, hedge fund! Will Pacificor play ball with Sony and Lionsgate? You’d expect so. While the auction got heavy at the last minute, there weren’t too many rights bidders who were really competitive. These companies obviously wanted to do something with the property, so why would Pacificor go to great lengths to find someone else to produce and distribute?

And what about McG, who has said more than once that he wants to make two more Terminator films? His representative argued in court yesterday that McG had a right of first refusal deal with Halcyon to direct any future sequels, and that Pacificor and any producing partners need to honor it. The judge disagreed, and said that if McG isn’t given the chance to direct the next film, he could file a claim against Halcyon in bankruptcy court.

What are the chances of McG actually suing, should a sequel come to pass without him, and of that claim generating anything tangible? More than likely, you’d expect Sony and LionsGate to throw him an executive producer credit on a future film and leave it at that.

http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/02/11...tribute-next-terminator-film-will-mcg-direct/