It has been a busy day for release date swaps. Following this morning’s shift of Star Wars: Episode VIII to December 2017, Paramount Pictures has set their big screen Baywatch film for release on May 19, 2017. That’s a date that the studio previously had earmarked for a followup to last year’s Terminator Genisys. The future of the franchise is now uncertain as plans for new Terminator sequel installments have been removed from the studio schedule. Continue reading
Rumor has it that the disappointing domestic performance of Terminator Genisys has squashed plans for future installments in the series. Speaking at a leadership conference for TheWrap, Skydance Media Chief Creative Officer Dana Goldberg says the franchise isn’t dead as much as readjusting.
“Do we intend to have a next step of Terminator? Yes, we do,” Goldberg said. “I wouldn’t say on hold, so much as re-adjusting.”
While Genisys underperformed domestically, it did stellar at the worldwide box office, bringing In $350 million overseas.
“We’re ultimately happy with overall worldwide numbers. Do I wish we would have done better domestically? Absolutely,” said Goldberg. “Happily, we live in the world where the domestic number had a level of importance 10 or 15 years ago — I’m not saying it’s not important, it is — but we have to play to a worldwide market. In terms of Terminator, the worldwide market paid attention, but we’re not taking the domestic number lightly.”
Goldberg says Skydance will try to improve on the next Terminator experience by data mining audiences to see what went right and what went wrong with Genisys.
In the end, Genisys’ success or failure is almost irrelevant. Hollywood is still Hollywood, and there seems little chance that any major studio would let a franchise like Terminator, with a pre-sold audience of nostalgia addicts and franchise diehards, sit on the back burner for long. Continue reading