You Could Have Owned the Terminator Franchise

?Admittedly, you would have needed $30 million, which not an inconsiderable sum. But for TV networks and movie studios, $30 mil is nothing — especially for a franchise whose worst two installments (3 and Salvation) earned $433 million and $375 million worldwide. And yet, the Terminator franchise sold for $29.5 million to… well, let me let ex-sister-in-law Nikki Finke of Deadline explain:

I’ve learned that the auction for the Terminator
movie, TV program, and other spin-off rights just ended after a
marathon bidding session today that stretched from 3 PM this afternoon
until 8 PM tonight. Both Sony Pictures and Lionsgate separately were
bidding for the franchise, and then joined up after the first round was
completed. “We’re going to fight one hell of a fight,” a Lionsgate
insider told me in advance. Its plans were for “a complete re-boot,
back to basics, with real emotional stories, and effects that will be
secondary.

Alas, the studios didn’t come away the winners — which, I’m told,
prompted a furious Sony Pictures Entertainment’s president of worldwide
affairs Peter Schlessel to “storm out” of the Downtown LA offices of
FTI Capital Advisors holding the auction. (Sony had distributed Terminator 4: Salvation internationally.)
Instead, Halcyon Holding Corp accepted the $29.5 million bid from, of
all parties, the debtholder which  pushed it into bankruptcy, Santa
Barbara-based hedge fund Pacificor. (This is the same Pacificor whom
Halcyon accused in a lawsuit of extortion, bribery, and fraud and
demanded $30M in damages.)

So. Sony and Lionsgate — fuck, Sony and anyone — couldn’t outbid the company that the Terminator rights holders had recently sued? Recently sued from more than they sold the whole fucking Terminator franchise to? Call me crazy, but I think some shenanigans might be going on here. Ah, well. The only real losers here are the Terminator fans. No big deal.