TheGrill 2015: ‘Terminator: Genisys’ Producer on Franchise’s Future: Not on Hold but ‘Re-Adjusting’ (Video)

Skydance Media Chief Creative Officer Dana Goldberg weighed in on the future of the “Terminator” franchise following the disappointing domestic box office results for “Terminator: Genisys.”

“I wouldn’t say on hold, so much as re-adjusting,” she said Tuesday at TheWrap’s 6th Annual Media Leadership Conference TheGrill about the company’s plans to pursue a big-screen trilogy as well as a new TV series announced in late 2013.

It’s unclear how that process might affect plans for a “Genisys” sequel, which had been slated for release in May 2017. “We are not going to begin production at the beginning of next year,” Goldberg said.

“At Skydance, when we talk movies, we talk universes, even more than franchises,” Goldberg said about continuing the sci-fi saga across platforms. “So the idea of a ‘Terminator’ TV show fits into that universe. All the steps have to be taken in unison.”

But David Ellison‘s company hit pause on those ambitious plans when “Genisys” grossed just $90 million in the U.S. this summer — though it raked in $350 million overseas on a production budget of $155 million.

“We’re ultimately happy with overall worldwide numbers. Do I wish we would have done better domestically? Absolutely,” said Goldberg, speaking at a panel on innovating the moviegoing experience along with Universal Pictures worldwide marketing president Josh Goldstine, Movio co-founder and chief exectuive Will Palmer, IMAX SVP and head of international marketing and Fandango president Paul Yanover.

“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,” she told moderator and TheWrap’s Thom Geier. “In terms of ‘Terminator,’ the worldwide market paid attention, but we’re not taking the domestic number lightly.”

But Goldberg, a producer on “Genisys,” vowed that the time-traveling cyborgs would be back. The company plans to use “data and research to do a worldwide study and really talk to audiences about what they loved, and what maybe didn’t work for them, so that the next we take with the franchise is the right one.”

But that process will likely push back the timing on a follow-up film. Production won’t happen in early 2017, she said, “because again, it would be silly to not have to worry about what audiences have to say.”

See complete coverage of TheGrill here.