Hollywood Intellectual Property Valuations are at test as the rights for the movie, The Terminator shall be auctioned later this month, especially at a time when the profit of the industry is tightened due to the falling sales of DVDs.

The price for rights of The Terminator, even though one of the rare blockbusters not controlled by a big studio, is expected to beat that of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which were sold for $60m. All the big film studios have registered interest in the rights, with Sony Pictures a leading contender. Several financial buyers, including Platinum Equity, the Beverly Hills firm that owns Delphi, the auto parts maker have also expressed interest in Terminator.

Summit Entertainment, the company behind the Twilight series and Media Rights Capital, which produced Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno, are tracking the auction, according to a source. Halcyon, the production company behind Terminator Salvation is auctioning the rights. However, the auction does not cover earlier Terminator films. The rights will give the buyer the ability to make new Terminator films, TV programmes and other spin-offs that build on the popularity of the franchise.

The rights to the franchise have changed hands many times in the past. The rights were bought by Halcyon for $25m two years ago from Mario Kassar, who had produced Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

Source : Financial Times.