The race to buy the rights to the Terminator franchise is heating up, with Variety reporting that Sony has joined Lionsgate in the race to purchase the rights.
In case you haven’t been following the story, Halycon, the company that bought the franchise rights a couple of year’s ago and made Terminator Salvation, went into bankruptcy a few months ago due to a fight with the private equity company who’d provided the loan to purchase the cyborg series. While they’d initially hope to reorganise their debt and retain the rights, the company was forced to concede defeat and put them up for sale.
Last month Lionsgate was announced as the ‘stalking horse’ bidder for the Terminator franchise. They put in a bid at the floor price of $15 million, plus 5% of future receipts. The deal means Lionsgate gets paid some cash if they eventually lose out on the rights, but it ensures any other interested parties can’t bid any lower and get them for virtually nothing.
Bidding closed yesterday, and although it wasn’t announced who all the interested parties are, sources revealed that Sony had joined Lionsgate in the race. This isn’t a particular surprise, as they distributed Terminator Salvation outside the US and have been mooted as wanting to put in a bid ever since the rights went up for sale.
However, despite Halcyon paying $30 million for the rights and telling the bankrupcty court they though they were worth $70 million, it’s unlikely anybody is going to be paying that sort of price when the winning bid is announced.