Soft returns for the movie and release dates set for two sequels confound Paramount and Skydance as "bubble" movies — not flops, not quite megahits — require tough decisions: "Sometimes you are left scratching your head." He'll be back. Or will he? In September 2014, David Ellison's Skydance Productions and Paramount boldly dated the next two installments in the rebooted Terminator franchise for 2017 and 2018, even though the first film in the planned trilogy, Terminator: Genisys , was 10 months from opening. But now Genisys , which cost $155 million to produce and tens of millions more to market, is underperforming at the box office -- it had earned only $80.6 million domestically and nearly $200 million overseas as of July 19 -- underscoring the tough decisions franchise-mad studios face with what might be called "bubble" movies, decent performers whose returns don't trigger an automatic sequel but whose backers aren't quite ready