Though the visual treats of Pacific Rim were aplenty, the road to a seemingly obvious sequel for Guillermo del Toro's 2013 sci-fi monster gem has been littered with obstacles. While the film ultimately grossed more than $400 million worldwide, Pacific Rim boasted the distinction of being one of those tragic Hollywood anomalies that nets the vast majority of its profits in every other country but the United States. Whisperings of a highly anticipated sequel appeared to be growing in recent months, though any hope of those whisperings actually saying anything of value have now been swiftly destroyed by the revelation that production on Pacific Rim 2 has been "halted indefinitely."
For a quick refresher on the brilliance of Pacific Rim, please refer to the divisive critical analysis below:
Several sources say there has been strain, in part because Tull kicked off the deal [between Legendary and Universal] in 2014 with a couple of clunkers that he put through Universal's distribution system and then upset some at the studio who feel he has indulged a bad habit of wrapping himself in credit for hits that he merely helped finance. In this case, the film at issue was the biggest movie of the year to date, Jurassic World.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film's apparent death sentence is but another casualty in growing tensions between Legendary and Universal, centered mostly on Legendary CEO Thomas Tull:
R.I.P. Pacific Rim 2. We didn't deserve you.
