Back before the film came out, Paramount and its producing partners were so confident in the new Terminator** entry, Genisys, that they announced sequel dates for not one but two films. Then Genisys landed with a wet thud and that idea seemed to collapse like a T-1000 in molten metal. But according to one of the producers, Skydance Pictures’ Dana Goldberg, the whole idea of a continuing franchise has not been scrapped.
“I wouldn’t say on hold, so much as readjusting,” she said Tuesday at The Wrap’s 6th Annual Media Leadership Conference, addressing the fact that the sequels were just part of the plan, with a TV show also in development. “At Skydance, when we talk movies, we talk universes, even more than franchises. So the idea of a Terminator TV show fits into that universe. All the steps have to be taken in unison.”
And though the box office returns in the US and several other countries weren’t exactly something to sing about, the studio and Skydance are taking the big picture into consideration, including Chinese audiences seemingly embracing the movie. “We’re ultimately happy with overall worldwide numbers. Do I wish we would have done better domestically? Absolutely. 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.”
Don’t expect two more films back to back for now, though – the company plans to do research into what people liked and disliked about the movie before it proceeds with anything else, so those early 2016 shoot dates can be wiped from the timeline.