It's safe to say that there have been some pretty major film releases hitting cinemas just recently, but our furry friend Detective Pikachu is doing just fine alongside his Hollywood superstar companions.
The Pokémon film has managed to keep hold of its number one spot at the international box office for a second week in a row. Variety reports that it made another $53.8 million from foreign markets last week, bringing its total revenue from all regions outside of the US to a cool $193.4 million. Its worldwide total now stands at $287.4 million.
To compare, the mighty Avengers: Endgame reportedly pulled in $46.8 million from slightly fewer international territories this week, although it has been in theatres for longer and has generated a mindblowing $2.6 billion worldwide.
If you're yet to go and see Detective Pikachu, feel free to give our full review a read to see if it sounds like your kind of thing. Here's a little snippet of what we had to say:
We're going to say it, Detective Pikachu may well be the first properly good video game film the industry has ever churned out. It's not a perfect beast at all, and although there's certainly more for fans of the games, there's still enough of a good film left for those who aren't to be able to enjoy it. A few stumbles here and there for sure, but this little critter is still more than ready to take on the Elite Four.
Can you believe a video game movie is enjoying so much success? If you've seen it, do you think it deserves to perform well? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
[source variety.com]
Comments 29
Took the kids to see it yesterday. Its a pretty good film. Its Pokemon,so of course it'll make a ton of money.
I probably go to the movies probably like once a year on average but went to see Detective Pikachu last week as I was invited along and figured why not. Didn't love it, but it was okay. They did a pretty good job with most of hte Pokemon and it was mildly humorous, but the throwaway plot had me a little bored at times.
**Censored** Avengers.
I still haven't seen this film yet as I'm waiting for it to go to good old kids club. (When the film has been shown for about 4 months then the tickets get to £2 because it's near the end of it's cinema life.)
I hope it'll not be disappointing, but I have to admit, nothing will be better than the Sonic movie......
Not only is it not the best video game movie, that might be the worst pun I've ever had to read.
I'm hesitant to watch it simply because Ryan Renolds voices Pikachu. That seems like a huge mistake...
I'm pretty sure that alone would ruin the movie for me
Detective Pikachu went for the head.
@Rafke
Your comment convinced me to go see it lol.
I hope one day we'll have a movie for all 150 pokemon!
Wow, that total is so low.
Cya
Raziel-chan
Dang. People really like superheroes for some reason.
Nice but not great box office, honestly. It's not losing money but that's hardly the slam dunk I'm sure Legendary were hoping for. Still, good enough to proceed with the sequel I guess.
We saw it Saturday and had a good time. It's not the second coming of Roger Rabbit, which it has a ton of parallels to, but an enjoyable movie nonetheless. Even my wife, whose Pokemon lore consists of recognising Pikachu and Eevee, had fun with it.
Personally I can't wait for Godzilla next week. This is such a great season!
Pretty good movie, success deserved.
@TommyTendo When you have a line-up of like 40 movies all with high budgets and highly paid actors, of course the big cross-over will be getting outstanding amounts of $$$.
That said, Detective Pikachu is probably the first in a line of many movies to come (Smash Bros universe, please).
Since this is the first genuinely good movie based on a video game - we could be looking at a complete 180 for this specific genre. I'm hoping Nintendo takes this business seriously and maybe starts investing more franchises into the movie industry. This is all very good for us gamers, if Nintendo follows up with more successful movies, their franchises will become more popular and their gaming division will only have an increasing amount of money.
@Timsworld2 I disagree, Ryan Reynolds seemed to have really enjoyed his role as Pikachu, and it's visible in his YouTube promotion videos. As for your argument about how the world is "copy and pasted"...I don't seem to understand???
I'm sorry but no, not even as a joke. I like Endgame so much more. The comparison of a spectacular finale of a series that has spanned 10 years to a quirky spin off of a series that is really hard to ignore the uncanny-vallyness despite it's decent humor... That's not even open for debate for me.
I've loved Pokemon since 1998, but sorry, DP wouldn't even make my top 50 films. Even if it's not the irredeemable mess I expected, that was a real low bar to surpass. I'd much rather watch almost any other Pokemon film. But the movie isn't terrible. C+ 7.8/10 at best.
But Avengers Endgame? One step shy of an absolute masterpiece, a thrill ride from start to finish and a film that I laughed, cried and gripped my seat in suspense during!
Saw it last week and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Without any knowledge of Pokémon outside of catching an episode or 2 when my kids are watching it, I thought it was very well done. Success definitely deserved!
@EasyDaRon You're comparing what Prince of Persia made in 17 weeks to what Detective Pikachu has made in less than 2.
John Wick 3 did 92 million at the box office internatinally...so this atticle is incorrect.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://deadline.com/2019/05/john-wick-chapter-3-hits-35m-in-overseas-bow-pikachu-nears-300m-global-as-endgame-tops-2-6b-ww-international-box-office-1202618380/amp/&ved=2ahUKEwiytYjpoKriAhXGThUIHXZeABgQFjAIegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw0dXDSYhrGW1ql1ZEyLKiFP&cf=1
I finally got to watch Detective Pikachu on Saturday. I enjoyed the movie for the most part. It's one of those I'd watch again or rent, but I wouldn't buy it either.
Brief impressions: The plot didn't start out bad but did take a turn for the meh in the second act. They borrowed some basic plot elements from the actual game and sort of ran away with them. Some of the weirdness was explained with experimentation, but still...Eh, maybe I'm analyzing a universe where monsters are kept in poke balls a little too much. I do like how they translated the Pokemon designs to be more realistic. Minus the "lol we're explaining this with experiments" stuff, there was quite a bit of respect and Easter eggs in regards to the Pokèverse.
The irony is that how this film ended was a lot like how I initially thought the game would end.
I saw it for a second time this past weekend, and weirdly enough? It was better on second viewing. It seemed more cohesive for some reason, and I have no idea why. I might go see it again!
"Avengers who?"
lol you can't be serious. Endgame is 100 mil away from overtaking Avatar.
@EasyDaRon I gotta be honest, I'm genuinely confused about what your point is. Are you saying that because Detective Pikachu didn't equal Avengers Endgame's insane numbers it's therefore not more successful than any other video game movie? Just because a Ferrari can't outrun a fighter jet doesn't mean it's as slow as a Volvo.
My favourite video game movie has to be Tomb Raider.
On a $150 million dollar budget, that means it's very close to making a profit (movies need to make approximately double the budget due to marketing costs).
@EasyDaRon Let me spell out my metaphor: Other video game movies are the baseline (the Volvo). Detective Pikachu had a bigger opening than any of them and is likely to surpass their final totals (the Ferrari). Avengers Endgame is not a video game movie and its box office is a statistical outlier, so including it in this comparison isn't fair (the fighter jet).
Plan to watch Detective Pikachu I've not and I don't plan on watching Advengers Endgame. I know its not the popular opinion I'm sure but I am really really burnt out on all superhero movies at this point for me it's the same thing over and over and they are just to predictable.
Not really surprising, Pokemon and Pikachu sells, even people who don't play the games, know who Pikachu is then say any super hero
@EasyDaRon That is true. In its 13-week run Warcraft earned over $433 million worldwide. And Detective Pikachu has earned 66% of that ($287 million) in less than 2 weeks. My money is on the electric mouse.
"It's safe to say that there have been some pretty major film releases hitting cinemas just recently, but our furry friend Detective Pikachu is doing just fine alongside his Hollywood superstar companions."
So...this isn't a major film release?
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