Pacific Rim Neither Goes Big Nor Goes Extinct at the Box Office
Steve Barton
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Pacific Rim’s less than monstrous opening can’t be considered a shock given that it’s an original property, has no major name stars, and has to clear the hurdle of convincing general audiences that look down upon giant monster movies as something beneath their intelligence….
…even as they flock to see Adam Sandler and his friends fart on each other for 90 minutes.
After weeks of prognosticators predicting Pacific Rim was doomed to bomb with about a $20-25 million opening, Thursday night’s sneak preview tally of $3.6 million had those same doomsayers changing their tune to the possibility of a $50 million opening weekend. Alas, that would not quite be the case; Guillermo Del Toro’s $180 million ode to Japanese giant monster movies had to settle for a somewhat disappointing $38.3 million. That, sigh, was still a few million less than the $42 million opening of Grown Ups 2, the latest Adam Sandler and friends vacation video. Both films would have to settle for second and third place, respectively, behind the unlikely juggernaut that is Despicable Me 2.
On the positive side, it earned an A- Cinemascore and that could translate into strong word-of-mouth which could keep the film viable in the coming weeks. Pacific Rim has also begun doing solid business internationally, proving especially dominant in Russia and Asia (sans China and Japan, where it still doesn’t open for a few weeks). Legendary’s pretty much been banking on international box office for this one, so whether or not we ever get any further Jaeger vs. Kaiju battles probably depends more on that than the US anyway.
And if there ever is a Pacific Rim 2 I hope they feature the Vatican City Jaeger I made using the Jaeger Designer app at the film’s official website. Who will save the world from Kaijus next time? It’s the Papal Jaeger “Crusader Basilica” and its pilots JC Sunday and Archbishop O’Malley!
Not much else horror related to speak of other than World War Z. To date the Brad Pit zombie flick has taken in over $175 million, domestically. Remember when that movie was supposed to be one of the biggest box office bombs of all time?
The dead return to the box office next week with The Conjuring, which will either scare the living hell out of you or prove to be another case of horrific overhype, the “I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter” version of Men in Black called R.I.P.D., another fx-driven summer blockbuster whose box office prospects at this moment are not looking good, and the not quite dead but getting close to it geri-action flick Red 2, which will answer the question as to just how many people have been sitting around the past few years clamoring for a sequel.
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