An article in The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Pacific Rim 2 has been delayed indefinitely and may never see release. The article primarily focuses on the franchise juggling between Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros. and Universal that led to Kong: Skull Island moving to Warner Bros. – paving the way for potential King Kong/Godzilla crossover film – though it also mentioned that Legendary has freezed any movement on the robots vs. monsters sequel. The news comes after director Guillermo Del Toro (Crimson Peak) announced filming was set to begin on the movie this fall for an August 4, 2017 release.
Pacific Rim’s underwhelming box office performance is reportedly the source of the change. The film made more than $411 million worldwide, barely cracking $100 million in the states. Paired with a $190 million budget and the cost for a sequel expected to be bigger than it’s predecessor is too much for Legendary to foot the bill. The article points to a similar situation with director Del Toro’s upcoming film Crimson Peak. Warner Bros. was reportedly willing to split production costs with Legendary Pictures if the film earned a ‘PG-13’ rating however since the film was rated ‘R,’ Legendary absorbed the costs.
Holding on Pacific Rim 2 also calls into question any possibilities that audiences will see Hellboy 3. In a panel discussion at Comic-Con, Del Toro said that since his plans for Hellboy 3 – which star Ron Perlman (Pacific Rim) revealed last week – would make it more expensive than the previous films, Pacific Rim 2 would need to perform exceptionally well at the box office. While they are very different films, this puts a greater burden on Crimson Peak to greatly exceed box office expectations, if there’s to be any chance that the Hellboy trilogy will be completed.
We’ll have more on Pacific Rim 2 as it develops.
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