It’s been a slow crawl, but after a marginal opening ($37 million) for Pacific Rim, domestically, the film might finally break the $100 million barrier. Then again it could or it could just come very close as it is now sitting at just under $95 million. I’m not much for stats, but I will follow a film’s overall gross if I’m interested in a sequel. Pacific Rim as you may or may not know cost $190 million to make with its heavy visual effects and realistically that’s not including marketing (or really the lack thereof that I saw).
It felt like Warner Bros. only pushed the film so much and even then I think it needed a more humanistic marketing approach. Showing more of the co-lead role between Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi as it’s safe to say giant robots versus giant monsters. It’s “cool” at only specific geek/nerd levels. And I’m not trying talk derogatory or generalize about geek/nerd implications, I’m one of them. What I mean is the marketing felt niche or misaligned and I’ll constantly bring up John Carter (2012) as a marketing comparison. In how Disney pushed it as the next Star Wars and didn’t make it as family friendly as it was, or as open of a story as it was. To which I actually akin it more towards how Avatar (2009) was as a film. And it’s not to say it would’ve done Avatar numbers but mass appeal is something a whole lot different than the specific collector/video game/comic book/cult monster film crowd. An audience in 2013 is just a lot smarter but if one thing hasn’t changed, it’s the simple fact of being able to relate to a film in a human manner. And I think Pacific Rim marketing wise missed the boat on that.
My review of the movie speaks volumes, I loved it. If you haven’t read it or commented your thoughts on the movie, go here for that – the operatic grandeur. But outside of how I felt about the film it’s been a question to those like myself who enjoyed the film, whether or not Pacific Rim would get a sequel. I’m not here to say yes, but I am saying, it just might. So let me elaborate on that.
I’ve been quietly following the worldwide gross of the film and by some surprise despite the low box office score domestically, it has been the sincere push in the foreign markets which has caused it (to my understanding) reach profitability (grossing over $200 million internationally to date). And in fact, perhaps, maybe, almost guarantees there might be sequel? I say that boldly because I think Pacific Rim might be the one film that fans will win out. And director Guillermo del Toro’s thoughts of a Jaeger/Kaiju hybrid, the implications of Dr. Newton drifting with the Kaiju and a Gipsy Danger 2.0 might actually become reality. The reason I say this is because speculatively Pacific Rim is about to perhaps open in potentially its biggest foreign market tomorrow, that of Japan. Where since the film’s opening, has seen various types of very appropriate marketing with regards to retro style Japanese posters, collectible toy figures, etc. It’s all anecdotal, ‘internet buzz-like’, and very assumptive. But it’s hard pressed not to believe the film is about to do well in Japan given it just broke records for Warner Bros. in China where it opened just some short time ago. For example, Japanese video game developer Hideo Kojima of the Metal Gear franchise has been very outspoken about the film, praising it to the point of saying “who are you, if you are Japanese and won’t watch this?”
Again, really all of this is my observational musings of what I’ve read and quietly followed. But at this point I’m finding myself very much the believer we will in fact see a sequel down the road. Pacific Rim showed me there was a lot more to the world than what was presented, and perhaps for once like I said, the fans of the film win out this time – and we’ll maybe get to see that, and the slow crawl by the film on a box office level worldwide will have been enough to actually warrant more. Only time will tell, but in the meantime, do you want a sequel? (I do!) I encourage you to sound off your thoughts below.
In other news and musing, I promised our resident editor in chief aka J. Jonah Jamison aka Anthony aka the self proclaimed often imitated but never duplicated “Superior” Anthony to promote our TV giveaway. So be sure to check out Andrea’s post about the promotion we are running… like… right now (until it ends)! Like Pacific Rim is worldwide in its appeal this contest is for our UK visitors who stop by but exclusive to only our UK visitors just like their sky deal codes. The TV is a Panasonic 42” 1080P plasma, the perfect starter size TV, until you get obsessed with going bigger and bigger (like I have gotten but that’s another story altogether). So check our contest now UK visitors if you already haven’t, the details for how to enter can be found by clicking right here.
