Sony joins the Terminator bidding war

According to Variety, Sony Pictures has thrown its name into the “We want to own the Terminator hat”. Artisan back in the day was the first studio to own the franchise, followed by Lionsgate, then recently Warner Bros. With a solid foreign box office intake, the film – Terminator Salvation - did okay during its American summer box office run last summer, but sold like hotcakes on DVD and Blu-ray.

Here’s the latest:

Sony’s joined Lionsgate in the bidding on the rights to the “Terminator” franchise.

The studio had no comment but a source close to the bidding confirmed that Sony submitted a bid Thursday, the final day for submitting offers.

Lionsgate stepped up last month as the first bidder for the rights to the “Terminator” franchise with a “stalking horse” or floor bid of $15 million and a 5% cut of future gross receipts.

Halcyon Group put the franchise up for sale in September-. The auction for the “Terminator” assets — which include the rights to future “Terminator” pics, TV series, DVDs and merchandise — will be held Monday at the offices of FTI Consulting in Los Angeles, followed by a bankruptcy court hearing two days later.

If Lionsgate doesn’t win the auction, it will receive $750,000 as a breakup fee from the winning bidder.

“Terminator Salvation,” the fourth film in the franchise, was produced by Halcyon with Warner Bros. handling domestic distribution and Sony taking international. It carried a production pricetag of about $200 million and took in $371 million worldwide.

Halcyon paid Mario Kassar $30 million for the “Terminator” rights in 2007, then filed for Chapter 11 as a result of a dispute with hedge fund Pacificor, which financed the purchase. At that point, Halcyon toppers Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek told the bankruptcy court that they valued the “Terminator” franchise above $70 million.”

Source: Variety