$411 mil. box-office on a $190 mil. budget; $300 mil. of which was from foreign-gross (it was big in China, 2nd biggest market after the US, with foreign-gross having become equally if not more important than domestic in the last decade); which = grossed double its budget, at least $100 mil. in profits if you factor in $100 mil. for advertising, which isn't a Titanic/Avatar-success but it didn't loose money (like, say, John Carter or The Lone Ranger).
Pacific Rim was also the first-film of a potential franchise of an unknown original property; which are essentially $200 mil. advertising campaigns for the sequel, to get the audience familiar with the property. Note the jumps in box-office from other first-to-second films in a franchise:
Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl - $650 mil. --> Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest - $1 bil.
Batman Begins - $375 mil --> The Dark Knight - $1 bil.
Thor - $450 --> Thor: The Dark World - $650
Captain America - $370 mil --> Captain America: Winter Soldier - $710 mil.
etc. etc. (Note: There are many sequels which don't have such a dramatic box-office success over the original, but rarely do sequels make -less- than the original, even if they're worse films - e.g. Spiderman 3 = $1 bil.)
...And box-office alone doesn't determine a films success/profitability, there's: VoD, DvDs, TV-rights, spin-offs (e.g. the above-mentioned anime) and, most importantly for Pacific Rim, merchandising (e.g. If the 2nd-film was marketed more to kids; and let's face it Pacific Rim wasn't an adult post-apocalyptic mecha-epic, it wasn't to giant robot-films what The Dark Knight was to superhero movies, and probably would've made an extra $200 mil. if marketted to the Transformers under-12 crowd instead of the nerd-niche of Del Toro-fans who got super-hyped at the Comi-con previews; it'd be easy to sell a line of Kaiju/Jaeger toys and/or video-games).
Finally, although it wasn't a break-out mainstream success (at least in the USA), Pacific Rim has developed a sort-of cult-following and dedicated core-fanbase; which movie-studios are seeking for security against the rising-costs of CGI blockbusters (e.g. Why Community and Parks and Recreation were consistently renewed, until recently, despite low ratings because of strong fan/critical-support and it was easier to hope active-fandoms which push and expand the viewership isntead of spending a few dozen-millions on advertising to push a new-property; like, if Firefly was made today, it probably would've lasted 5-seasons despite low-ratings as broadcasters have realized the strength of online communitys <----- just mentioning this to make you sad, Kraken). And, fuck it, they've got everyone involved with Pacific Rim signed onto a 3-picture-deal; so why not make it? There's the chance that in the interim between Pacific Rim and Pacific Rim 2 Del Toro's name goes mainstream like Josh Whedon's or Christopher Nolan's, if his Justice League Dark at Warner Bros. is a success; or Idris Elba wins an Oscar and gets cast as the new James Bond; or Charlie Hunnam gets cast in a superhero-movie (Aquaman?); or Ron Pearlman's elected President in the 2016 elections - or any of the rest of the cast increase their profile/fanbase by becoming surprise superstars.
Personally, I think Charlie Day could be the next great romantic-leading-man of our generation (it's his sexy voice).
In short, ^I only post to insult/refute you, Kraken. (My next post will either be titled: Why The How I Met Your Mother Finale is an Irrefutable Masterpiece or Is Firefly Overrated? or Cyberpunk: The Worst of The Genres with the word 'Punk') Note: The last two are jokes, but the HIMYM-finale was legitimately amazing, and I will formulate my thoughts on it into coherant paragraphs in the next few weeks (but weeks = years in Australia time).
P.S. But seriously Kraken, where's my fucking money?