I write a box office round-up post every week, and hardly a week goes by that someone doesn’t pipe up and say we should focus more on worldwide box office. While it makes the coverage more complicated, it’s true. Some of the big blockbusters are making 60 percent of their total take and higher in international markets. With that in mind, good news for fanboys today as, despite its disappointing US numbers, Pacific Rim (our review) was number one in foreign markets this weekend, ahead of Despicable Me 2. I bet Guillermo Del Toro was so happy he mushed his dolls together and made “pew pew!” sounds. Oh, sorry, “action figures.”
From Toldja.Finke:
I’ve learned the studio discovered this morning that last weekend’s results came in $500K higher than forecast on Sunday. The result is that screenwriter Travis Beacham (who had the idea for the film) and co-scribe/director Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim grossed $35.3M with 4.7M admissions from 9,610 screens in 50 territories. That was just enough to knock off Universal’s 3D toon Despicable Me 2 and become the #1 film internationally over the weekend now that all the numbers are in…
No one is saying this movie is going to turn a profit due to its high cost Industrial Light & Magic CGI. But international is a big part ofPacific Rim‘s strategy in a crowded summer marketplace. This brings the expensive $180M-$220M budget pic’s international cume to $110.9M and its worldwide total to $178.5M…
Foreign territories for Pacific Rim opening last weekend included France, Germany, Hong Kong, and Holland. The movie already has debuted in major markets Russia, Korea, Mexico, UK, Australia, and Italy. Upcoming releases include July 31st for China, Spain, Japan, and August 9th for Brazil…
So, good, but probably still not enough to make it profitable, given the big budget and marketing costs. Nonetheless, it makes the possibility of a sequel much more likely than we thought a few weeks ago. And if Pacific Rim was supposed to give you a “70-minute orgasm,” the sequels would probably pull out your prostate and give to you to take home, encased in clear dice. …I don’t know, man, you’ll have to ask Del Toro, I don’t know what tops 70 minutes of non-stop jizzing.
It’s also worth noting that the film, which is about giant robots and giant monsters fighting, has yet to open in Japan and China. I don’t want to stereotype, but it seems like something they might be into.