'Detective Pikachu' Box Office Tracking: Audiences *Really* Want To See Ryan Reynolds As A Pokémon
Video game-related movies don't tend to do so well at the box office. But Detective Pikachu might change all that. Early box office tracking for the comedy is strong, indicating audiences really want to see Ryan Reynolds as a crime-solving Pokémon. It probably helps that the movie actually looks surprisingly good, which I don't think many of us were expecting. More on the Detective Pikachu box office below.
When Detective Pikachu was announced, my knee-jerk reaction was that it might turn out to be a disaster. Instead, the trailers for the film have completely turned me around. I'm genuinely excited to see the strange CGI/live-action hybrid, and it seems I'm not alone. Box Office Pro has early long range tracking on Detective Pikachu, and it's quite promising. Per their estimate, the Ryan Reynolds film is likely headed towards a $75 million+ opening weekend.
They list several factors behind this impressive number, including: "Social media activity since the film's first trailer launch has been stellar, breaking our internal Twitter tracking record with 400,000+ mentions on the day of release;" and "Opening in the third weekend of Avengers: Endgame and two weeks before Aladdin could give it enough breathing room for a pre-Memorial Day breakout, especially if the former of those two competitors delivers another ending too dark for parents with young kids."
Forbes takes things a step further, suggesting Detective Pikachu might end up being the first blockbuster video game movie. Per their analysis, Detective Pikachu "need only earn $132m domestic (Tomb Raider back in 2001) and $434m worldwide (Warcraft in 2016) to be the biggest video game movie ever." One reason for this might be because Detective Pikachu isn't being marketed as a "video game movie," even though it's very premise is based off an actual video game. Maybe that's been the secret all along – to downplay the video game angle?
On top of all this is the fact that the movie looks, well, great. Visually stunning (it was shot on film, which is rare for these type of movies) and filled with relatable humor, Detective Pikachu looks to be appealing to everyone, from Pokémon fans to people like me who have almost no knowledge of the world of Pokémon. Detective Pikachu opens May 10, 2019.
A young man joins forces with Detective Pikachu to unravel the mystery behind his father's disappearance. Chasing clues through the streets of Ryme City, the dynamic duo soon discover a devious plot that poses a threat to the Pokémon universe.