Did you know that the Terminator franchise is up for auction? Halcyon Co, the current owner, filed for Chapter 11 in August and have announced plans to auction off the rights to the Terminator franchise to pay off debts. Halcyon has hired FTI Capital Advisors to take care of the auction that is due to happen between now and January 2010.
What's Terminator Worth?
While Halcyon paid $25 million to buy the Terminator franchise back in 2007, it is estimated that the franchise may be worth about $60 million. Not a bad appreciation on an investment in two years.
So what do you get when you buy the franchise rights to Terminator?
The Terminator franchise includes four movies and a spin-off TV series entitled Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
How successful were the Terminator movies?
The 1984 original Terminator starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and has grossed about $78 million worldwide. The 1991 sequel, Terminator 2, earned about $519 million worldwide. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was released in 2003 and has grossed about $433 million worldwide. Terminator Salvation was released in 2009 and so far has grossed more than $371 million worldwide. All told, Terminator is a billion dollar franchise that certainly has a lot more cash to convey to its owner.
Terminator 2 Receives Awards
As you can see from the above, the amount of money for the Terminator movies has continued to decline as has the quality of the films. Terminator 2 is perhaps the most highly acclaimed of the four Terminator movies. Terminator 2 won four Academy Awards in 1992 for Best Sound, Best Makeup, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing. At the MTV Awards of the same year, Terminator 2 won Best Movie and Best Action Sequence, while Linda Hamilton won Best Female Performance and Most Desirable Female. Arnold Schwarzenegger also won the Best Male Performance at the MTV Awards that same year.
A Rhetorical Proposal From Whedon
Joss Whedon has submitted what should be termed a wishful bid, offering a mere $10,000 for the entire Terminator franchise with the promise that he will help the ailing movies to not suck as much. Given that Whedon’s latest television project Dollhouse has been cancelled it is doubtful that Whedon will be taken up on his virtuous, yet parsimonious offer. Whedon is perhaps best known as the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly.
