Analysts were projecting that Pacific Rim wouldn't stand a chance against Grown Ups 2 or Despicable Me 2, but it was actually a pretty close race. Despicable Me 2 took the top spot with $44.7 million, while Grown Ups 2 placed second with $42.5 million.
Pacific Rim is the movie we've been covering, so that's will be the focus of our report. The movie took third place with $38.3 million, which is better than some of the grim projections being thrown around earlier this month. With that being said, it's still not what Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures were hoping for.
Why didn't Pacific Rim perform better? Like with many movies, it really comes down to middle America. Pacific Rim is a movie that appeals to the genre crowd and fans of Guillermo del Toro, and while there are a lot of them, it doesn't compare to the audience a summer blockbuster needs to tap into to be successful. Pacific Rim lacked the star power that World War Z had with Brad Pitt, and the early marketing focused on Kaiju versus Jaegers over the movie's characters. As had been pointed out in multiple places recently, many average moviegoers thought Pacific Rim was a generic Transformers ripoff based the marketing.
Things weren't terrible for Pacific Rim, though. The $38 million beat recent projections and audience approval has been really good. This could be a movie that has a strong word of mouth and is able to stay in the top ten for longer than usual. A sequel is already in the planning stages, but box office performance will be a deciding factor and it's going to come down to international numbers. Movies like Oblivion had strong international numbers that made up for the soft US ticket sales and Pacific Rim picked up $53 million internationally so far. We'll keep readers updated on Pacific Rim's performance at the box office over the next few weeks.
Another movie we've been keeping an eye on is World War Z, which continues to perform well. The movie added another $9.4 million to its total and has earned $177 million in the US since opening. World War Z has reached $423 million worldwide and could cross the $5oo million mark over the next month. A sequel is already in development over at Paramount.
Next weekend sees the release of The Conjuring, R.I.P.D., Red 2, and Turbo. Here are the top ten results for this weekend:
1. Despicable Me 2 - $44,754,000
2. Grown Ups 2 - $42,500,000
3. Pacific Rim - $38,300,000
4. The Heat - $14,000,000
5. The Lone Ranger - $11,140,000
6. Monsters University - $10,621,000
7. World War Z - $9,430,000
8. White House Down - $6,150,000
9. Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain - $5,000,000
10. Man of Steel - $4,825,000
After spending more than 10 years as a consultant in the tech and entertainment industry, Jonathan James launched Daily Dead in 2010 to share his interest in horror and sci-fi. Since then, it has grown into an online magazine with a staff of writers that provide daily news, reviews, interviews, and special features.
As the Editor-in-Chief of Daily Dead, Jonathan is responsible for bringing the latest horror news to millions of readers from around the world. He is also consulted with as an expert on zombies in entertainment and pop culture, providing analyses of the zombie sub-genre to newspapers, radio stations, and convention attendees.
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