Pacific Rim (2013)

Pacific Rim is a 2013 American military science fiction mecha monster film directed by Guillermo del Toro. The first film in the Pacific Rim franchise, it stars Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Robert Kazinsky, Max Martini, and Ron Perlman. The screenplay was written by Travis Beacham and del Toro, from a story by Beacham. The film is set in the future, when Earth is at war with the Kaiju, colossal sea monsters which have emerged from an interdimensional portal on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. To combat the monsters, humanity unites to create the Jaegers, gigantic humanoid mechas, each controlled by two co-pilots whose minds are joined by a mental link. Focusing on the war's later days, the story follows Raleigh Becket, a washed-up Jaeger pilot called out of retirement and teamed with rookie pilot Mako Mori as part of a last-ditch effort to defeat the Kaiju.

Principal photography began on November 14, 2011, in Toronto and lasted through to April 2012. The film was produced by Legendary Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was released on July 12, 2013, in 3D, RealD 3D, IMAX 3D and 4DX, receiving generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its performances, direction, storyline, action sequences, visual effects, musical score, and nostalgic style. While it underperformed at the box office in the United States, it was highly successful in other markets, thus becoming a box office success. It earned a worldwide total of $411 million—earning $136 million in China alone, its largest market—becoming Del Toro's most commercially successful film. The film is regarded as an homage to kaiju, mecha, and anime media.

A sequel titled Pacific Rim Uprising was released on March 23, 2018, with Universal Pictures as the film's distributor.