With Terminator: Salvation hitting DVD and Blu-ray at the end of this month, the fate of future Terminator movies will now be dependent on the outcome of an auction for the rights to the franchise which takes place over the next couple of weeks. The auction has come about due to Halcyon filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, and as such it's selling off arguably its most valuable asset to try and raise some much-needed funds.

The auction will cover the future of the Terminator franchise, and not the rights to the earlier movies, and whoever wins the auction will be able to make whatever movies and TV shows around the property that they choose. As such, it's a fair bet that we've not seen the last of the Terminator on the big screen, given that it's likely to take a near-nine figure sum to win the rights in the first place (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rights sold for $60m just a few weeks ago), and it's also safe to assume that there's likely to be more than one bidder here (all of Hollywood's major studios are said to have lodged an interest, with the Financial Times reporting that Sony is the current frontrunner).

Whoever ends up with the rights to the Terminator will have to decide fairly quickly whether they intend to proceed with the plans for a new trilogy of films, which Terminator: Salvation was expected to be the first of. Despite suggestions that it had severely underperformed - in the light of its $125m US gross - Terminator: Salvation pulled in just over $370m at the worldwide box office, and is expected to garner healthy returns from its disc release too.

The fate of Terminator 5, however, is set to be known by the end of the month. The Financial Times has more on the auction...