‘Pacific Rim’ #1 Internationally Over Weekend
EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros has bragging rights today for distributing the Legendary Pictures 3D scifi actioner around the world after co-financing it. 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 of Pacific 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. Unfortunately, U.S. theatrical sales are not expected to exceed $100M all in so overseas coin is crucial. As I’ve said before, while a major studio might be disappointed with Pacific Rim‘s domestic gross, Legendary’s mega-financier Thomas Tull may have the luxury of mining this marginal outcome into a franchise. 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.
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