[bluesparrow]

If people think it's a Transformers movie, then it should do extremely well. All of those movies made a fortune. The fourth one next year will as well.

But Pacific Rim isn't on track to open like a Transformers film, so I don't think that's it. They've botched the advertising for PR. Emphasized the cgi and the action. Which is enough for some people but if you actually look at the way the Transformers films were advertised, they emphasized the human story as well, at least with the first film. They put Shia Lebeouf and Megan Fox out front. And though people really hate those two actors now, at the time it made them both stars. It gave people who don't automatically see every movie with giant robots a reason to go see the movie. Because that latter audience is much bigger.

I know who all the actors in Pacific Rim are because I pay attention to that kind of thing. I've picked up on their storylines in the movie, but only from closely examining all the marketing materials. It's not terribly obvious what's going on with the humans in the movie. And that's a problem. And since none of them are famous they need to put them out there even more.

Even Idris Elba, whose most visible role in the US was a recurring role on the american The Office - the Wire was a critical darling but low rated. Charlie Hunnam's the star of a hit cable show, but the standards for cable shows are lower(Sons of Anarchy is usually below five million viewers, which sounds like a lot but doesn't translate to much box office, even if every single one went to see PR).