John Boyega's Pacific Rim 2 Coming in 2018

The sequel to Pacific Rim starring John Boyega of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens got a definite release date this week, and it's a little bit later than originally expected. The film will bow in early 2018 just after the Presidents' Day weekend, where it will set up a battle between itself and a pair of Marvel films.

Pacific Rim 2 had originally been scheduled for release in the spring of 2017 and was subsequently moved to late summer of that same year. This week's new date, February 23, falls between the release of Disney/Marvel's Black Panther film the week before and an as-yet-unspecified Marvel movie from 20th Century Fox the week after. That Fox film could be Deadpool 2, making it difficult for Pacific Rim to sustain momentum after its debut.

The original Pacifc Rim did not perform well in the United States, earning just $101 million on a production budget of approximately $190 million. The film performed well abroad, however, and its total worldwide gross topped $411 million. Other films, including the recent Warcraft, have followed the same pattern of domestic disappointment and foreign success, and it's likely that the Pacific Rim sequel will do the same. The presence of Boyega, though, could help the film gain some traction at home.