All those who liked Pacific Rim, rejoice! Despite concerns over domestic box office, the robots vs. monsters movie has opened solidly in China, paving the way for a potential Pacific Rim 2.
Pacific Rim opened on Wednesday in China to a $9 million box office take, raising its international box office to an excess of $150 million. This could push for a greenlight for Pacific Rim 2. The studio does not take as high a percentage of international box office as it does domestic, but strong international numbers mean a broad spectrum of interest in the film and the possibility of marketing merchandise, DVD and Blu-Ray sales and licensing fees.
Pacific Rim will open in Japan, Brazil and Spain next week.
International box office has become increasingly important, especially for films like Pacific Rim that did not knock over the US box office. With Hollywood recognizing that there is an expanded market for films across the globe, this means good things for movies that might not be American audiences’ cup of tea.
Pacific Rim 2 might be a little weird production-wise, though. Legendary Entertainment owns most of Pacific Rim. With their recent divorce from Warner Brothers, and remarriage to Universal, that puts three studios into the cut of Pacific Rim 2. How will they ever work it out?
It would be nice to see a Pacific Rim 2 happen, even better if it happens because of international box office. So often we label films box office failures simply because they fail to do well with US audience. While America might be one of the biggest markets for big budget films, there is a whole world out there with different tastes from our own.
What do you think of the prospects for Pacific Rim 2? Would you like to see del Toro and company cancel the apocalypse again? Let us know in the comments.