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The rights to the Terminator franchise have been sold. And it happened with the least amount of fanfare possible. Aside from rumors that the head of Sony Pictures stormed out of yesterday’s auction, it was a relatively bland affair. According to reports, two major studios — Lionsgate and Sony Pictures — were in the running all the way to the end, but bailed just in time to let Santa Barbara-based hedge fund Pacificor win the final prize. The funny part about all of this is that it was Pacificor that was the debtholder responsible for the bankruptcy of the Halcyon Company, the firm that sold the rights. Now pending approval by the bankruptcy court, Pacificor will own Terminator.

According to Nikki Finke, “Sony and Lionsgate dropped out at just under $29.5 million when it became clear that Pacificor was willing to pay almost any amount of money for Terminator.” Per the deal, Halcyon will keep the revenue streams from Terminator 3 and Terminator Salvation, and will receive $5 million for every Terminator movie produced in the future.

At this point, any and all personnel that might have been involved with another Terminator film have moved on, including Salvation director McG. It leaves the future of the franchise completely up in the air. Though it is safe to say that after paying $29.5 million for the franchise, Pacificor will want to make a movie sooner than later. Salvation earned $372 million worldwide, which is no small chunk of change.

Once this deal is finalized and the rights are handed over, I’m sure we’ll know more. For now though, we’re just disappointed that our bid of $25 and a pack of chewing gum wasn’t even considered. Pretentious pricks.