Pacific Rim Tops The Dark Knight Rises’ Box Office Records In China
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While Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim didn’t make a big splash in the United States, taking in only $93.5 million, the movie is positioned to bring its overall box office gross to more than $300 million worldwide. It’s no surprise that Pacific Rim is performing better overseas than in the U.S.: Guillermo del Toro and screenwriter Travis Beacham designed the film that way. At the moment, Pacific Rim has grossed $200.4 million internationally after a super-strong opening in China. If Warner Bros. hopes to make the film profitable, it has to make a few million more in the hopes that the film would get a sequel.
According to The Wrap, Pacific Rim debuted in China with an estimated $45.2 million box office opening. This number tops The Dark Knight Rises‘ $32 million Chinese record opening in 2012. Thanks to IMAX screenings of Pacific Rim in China, del Toro’s latest earned an additional $6 million. While Pacific Rim is barely tracking to $100 million here in the States, the mechs-versus-monsters movie is positioned to recoup its reported $190 million production budget.
Russia is the second biggest market for Pacific Rim behind China. The film has grossed over $20 million in Russia, while has yet to open in foreign markets including Spain, Japan, and Brazil. Considering its scale and influences, something tells me Pacific Rim will perform well in the Japanese market. The other big markets for Pacific Rim were South Korea with $17.9 million, Mexico with $15 million, and the United Kingdom with $12 million.
American audiences didn’t seem interested in Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim when it was first released last month. The science fiction film only grossed $37.2 million in its opening weekend, which put it in third place behind Despicable Me 2 and Grown Ups 2, with $43.8 million and $41.5 million, respectively. Needless to say, Pacific Rim‘s domestic box office numbers were a big disappointment to Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures. It will be interesting to see how well the Pacific Rim Blu-ray/DVD sells once the movie is released in the home-video market a few months from now. Perhaps the Blu-ray/DVD sale numbers will push Pacific Rim closer and closer toward a sequel film greenlight.
Guillermo del Toro and co-screenwriter Travis Beacham are already working on the screenplay for Pacific Rim 2, regardless. The Mexican director has big ideas about Pacific Rim 2, which may involve even bigger Jaegers and Kaiju, as well as a possible melding of both mechanical and alien beasts into one glorious, giant monstrosity.
Honestly, I really don’t think Pacific Rim will get a sequel from Warner Bros. If it’s struggling to hit $300 million a month after it was released, it seems unlikely that Warner Bros. would want to pour additional money into a film series that is uncertain as Charlie Hunnam’s American accent, unless Guillermo del Toro would be willing to make Pacific Rim 2 on a much smaller scale, which doesn’t seem likely. We should just be happy a movie like Pacific Rim exists, and that it turned out as good as it did.
