The big budget adaptations of Frank Herbert's "Dune" and Alex Raymond's "Flash Gordon", as well as Peter Hyams's sequel to "2001", ' (based on "2001" author Arthur C. Clarke's novel '), were box office failures that dissuaded producers from investing in science fiction literary properties. Disney's "Tron" (1982) turned out to be a moderate success. The strongest contributors to the genre during the second half of the 1980s were James Cameron and Paul Verhoeven with "The Terminator" and "RoboCop" entries. Robert Zemeckis' film "Back to the Future" (1985) and its sequels were critically praised and became box office successes, not to mention international phenomena. James Cameron's sequel to "Alien", "Aliens" (1986), was very different from the original film, falling more into the action/science fiction genre, it was both a critical and commercial success and Sigourney Weaver was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the Academy Awards. The Japanese anime film "Akira" (1988) also had a big influence outside Japan when released.