Pacific Rim: Uprising Has Defeated Black Panther
After an incredible five week reign where all newcomers were soundly defeated in combat, who could possibly challenge King T’Challa of Wakanda for his throne? He was finally bested this weekend — by giant robots. Killmonger should have thought of using those.
Pacific Rim: Uprising turned out to be the movie that succeeded where A Wrinkle in Time and Tomb Raider couldn’t — by landing the #1 weekend box office spot. It earned $28 million domestically, while Black Panther still pulled in a respectable $16.6 million at #2.
All other newcomers crashed and burned. The embarrassing-looking Sherlock Gnomes only made it to #4 and Midnight Sun and Unsane bombed at #10 and #11. If you were looking for Wes Anderson’s stop-motion-animated Isle of Dogs, that was only technically released in the loosest sense. Only 27 theaters nationwide got to play it, though that number will expand this coming weekend.
While the original Pacific Rim was a cult hit, it didn’t earn the kind of money Stateside that guarantees a sequel, especially for a VFX-heavy giant mech film. We have Uprising today because of the original’s massive success in China, where it was a big hit. And the sequel is performing well there too, having made almost three times as much in its opening weekend as it did here.