Pacific Rim may not have been as successful in the U.S. as Legendary Pictures hoped (Grown Ups 2 beat it at the box office), but it still did well overseas, breaking records in China, for example. The awesome dumb robot movie also exceeded expectations on merchandise and home video sales. That’s why Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull is now talking about making Pacific Rim 2 happen.
Tull explained the sequel plans in an interview with Collider:
“We love being in business with Guillermo [del Toro] and frankly that movie, if you look it up, did I think more business than the first X-Men, did more than Batman Begins, our first movie, did more than Superman Returns, The Fast and the Furious, Star Trek — so for a movie that was an original property that we made up it’s done really well. It did north of 400 million dollars globally and both the home video sales and the merchandise have way over-indexed, so it seems like fans really loved the world. So we’re going to sit down with Guillermo and as long as we think it’s authentic and there’s something to say, we’re certainly open to it.”
It’s quaint how he says they’ll only do Pacific Rim 2 if “it’s authentic and there’s something to say”. Because when I want to say something important and authentic, I reach for a narrative about giant robots punching monsters in the face. So poignant. So pregnant with meaning. Perhaps it is we who are the monsters.
Meanwhile, Slashfilm looked up his box office claim. If you don’t adjust for inflation or account for higher-priced 3D and IMAX tickets, what Tull said is true.
On a worldwide scale, according to Box Office Mojo, those movies rank like this:
- Pacific Rim – $411 Million
- Superman Returns – $391 Million
- Star Trek (2009) – $385 Million
- Batman Begins – $374 Million
- X-Men – $296 Million
- The Fast and the Furious – $207 Million
Every single one of those movies got sequels, and each sequel was a bigger hit than the original (Superman Returns didn’t, but I’m cheating and counting Man of Steel).
I recalculated this list, adjusting everything to 2013 dollars.
- Superman Returns – $452M in 2013 dollars
- Batman Begins – $446M in 2013 dollars
- Star Trek (2009) – $418M in 2013 dollars
- Pacific Rim – $411M in 2013 dollars
- X-Men – $400M in 2013 dollars
- The Fast and the Furious – $272M in 2013 dollars
Pacific Rim is now outearned by Superman Returns, Batman Begins, and Star Trek (2009). On the other hand, another Pacific Rim means they may finally get to use some of our suggested Jaeger names…