Sony Takes Command in 'Terminator' Auction

When news first broke about the rights to future Terminator endeavors being auctioned off, one of the studios listed as a possible bidder was Sony. Along with Summit, the Twilight people, and Lionsgate, the Saw and Tyler Perry people, Sony seemed to be a likely candidate over the other major studios like Fox, Paramount, and WB, which had handled the domestic distribution of Terminator Salvation. At the time, we thought that sounded like a good plan. "Sony might have the inside track, because it recently handled the international distribution for Salvation," we wrote in September. "Another reason might be Sony's limited number of tentpoles. Looking at the last three years, the biggest hits were Spidey 3, Hancock, Bond (which is a co-production with MGM), the two Dan Brown movies, and Paul Blart. Four of those are really, really big movies. So that's about one really, really big movie every eight months." But as recently as Wednesday, Sony hadn't entered the fray. Lionsgate offered $15 million plus a percentage for the rights to Terminator - which does not include anything having to do with the previous movies or the TV show, rather just the name and the story and the characters - and that figure had stuck. Well, on Thursday, according to Variety, Sony outbit Lionsgate, although the figure is not known. Thursday's was also the last day to bid, so, if it's not Sony then it would have to be LGF. But Lionsgate would likely have had to sweeten the deal quite a bit in a matter of hours. Look at Sony playing the eBay game where you watch people bid on something for a few minutes, wait it out, and then leapfrog their bid with three seconds to go. Classic. Because of its larger distribution engine, Sony is a better fit, although Lionsgate could have just as easily partnered up with a major studio for those purposes, too. It will all be hammered out on Monday in Los Angeles, and if LGF isn't the winner, it will receive $750K from Sony in what's called a "breakup fee." And then Sony would be back in the summer movie blockbuster business again, though what step the studio would take next is anyone's guess. Probably 2012 or later, and hopefully without McG at the helm.

Comments

[Anastasios-Antonios Toulkeridis]

"and hopefully without McG at the helm"

I second that