'Terminator' Sequels On Hold Indefinitely Despite Worldwide Box Office Success
Even though Arnold Schwarzenegger has touted the iconic line "I'll be back" in the Terminator franchise over and over again, it turns out that might not end up being true after this latest round of the sci-fi film series.
This past summer, Terminator: Genisys didn't do so hot at the domestic box office, and the future of the series was uncertain. But its performance in international markets, especially China, indicated that the franchise continuing might still be a possibility. However, a small mention of future Terminator sequels has revealed Paramount Pictures has put any future Terminator sequels on hold indefinitely.
In a recent report about movie financiers at THR (via The Playlist), there's some talk about Terminator: Genisys still losing money even after raking in $440 million worldwide. That's a good chunk of change, but with a budget that came in at $155 million before marketing came into play, that made any profit a little difficult to obtain for Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
And it's in that explanation that the trade says "the notion of a Terminator universe is on hold indefinitely." That doesn't necessarily mean that the franchise is dead, but Paramount probably won't be rushing into Terminator 6 or Terminator 7 anytime soon, despite previously setting release dates in 2017 and 2019.
However, that doesn't mean we won't see another attempt at a Terminator movie come together. The rights to the franchise revert back to James Cameron in 2019, and if Paramount wants to make the most out of the rights to the iconic title while they have them, it might be worth taking one more crack at a proper Terminator. But if fans still have the bad taste in their mouth from Terminator: Genisys, then they may not be all that interested.
At this point, it may be time to just let the Terminator franchise die. The track record for good sequels is reason enough to just let the franchise go away for awhile until James Cameron sells the rights to another studio and they decide to remake the first movie without Arnold Schwarzenegger involved at all. That kind of thing is probably inevitable, and it this point, I'd much rather see Schwarzenegger do something different anyway.
It's a tough market out there right now, and it seems that sequels may become a little less abundant, even when the overseas numbers indicate success. Pacific Rim 2 was just taken off the 2017 release calendar at Universal even though the studio is still reportedly dedicated to making it happen at some point. Maybe Paramount will end up supporting the Terminator franchise just the same.
Anyone out there disappointed by this news?