Guillermo del Toro’s robots vs. monster mash-up** Pacific Rim** wasn’t the big success that he or Warner Bros./Legendary were hoping for, at least in the US and over here. Internationally and particularly in China, however, the movie has been something of a smash. With a record-breaking $9 million opening there, the film may well be on track to punch out a sequel.
That’s despite the fact that the film has yet to turn a profit, and may not even reach the sort of magic numbers that studios prefer before hitting the button that sets sequels in motion. The budget is estimated as between $180 and more than $200 million, and the movie has yet to break $225 million globally, despite becoming hitting the top of the box-office around the world - and that doesn’t even factor in the big marketing spend. Still, Legendary in particular seems enthused by the results, so people are probably talking to del Toro and co-writer/concept man Travis Beacham about ideas for a second go-around.
The film, of course, sees mankind beset by gigantic beasts from another dimension called Kaiju, and using giant mechas called Jaegers to fight them. As we joined the film, Idris Elba's Stacker Pentecost was leading the last few of these Jaegers against an increasing Kaiju threat, and desperately seeking pilots to operate them, including Charlie Hunnam's Raleigh and Rinko Kikuchi's Mako.
If a sequel does actually surface, we can probably expect something marketed even more heavily towards Chinese audiences to reflect how the film has been embraced there. So if we’re getting a follow-up, what do you want to see? Better scripts? More Jaegers?
For more from del Toro on the first film, check out our podcast interview with him below.
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