Both partly and mostly filmed-in-Vancouver Dawn of Planet of the Apes (US$537 million) and Godzilla (US$508 million) have passed the half-a-billion-dollars mark in worldwide box office, according to Box Office Mojo. The rebooted Planet of the Apes franchise starring Andy Serkis as Caesar filmed about a quarter of its sequel in B.C. forests (Capilano Canyon, Golden Ears Park & more) with the remainder of production done in Louisiana. In Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Caesar leads a growing nation of genetically-evolved apes who are threatened by human survivors of a devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. Directed by Matt Reeves the film co-stars Judy Greer as Caesar’s ape-mate Cornelia; Gary Oldman as Dreyfus; Jason Clarke as Malcolm, Keri Russell as Ellie and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Alexander.
Related: Rise of the Planet of the Apes Films Greenscreen Golden Gate Bridge at Kent Hangar Field.
By contrast Godzilla starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson shot almost everything locally in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island, with big shoots in Nanaimo, Steveston, downtown Vancouver, Kent Hangar field, south Burnaby, downtown New Westminster and Coquitlam. The story: fifteen years after a pod is unearthed in a Philippines mine, two gigantic radiation-munching MUTOS cause havoc in Hawaii and Las Vegas. Their awakening stirs another ancient predator in Japan known as Godzilla. The MUTOS and Godzilla meet and do battle in the streets of San Francisco where the U.S. military tries to contain them. Directed by Gareth Edwards, the film co-stars Ken Watanabe as a scientist, Elizabeth Olsen as Taylor-Johnson’s wife and Bryan Cranston as Taylor-Johnson’s father. Godzilla spent most of its $160-million budget in Vancouver.
Related: Godzilla Filming on Vancouver and Vancouver Island.
And in a surprise development, Robocop starring Joel Kinnaman, redeemed its weak showing in North America with boffo box office overseas for a worldwide total approaching a quarter-of-a-billion-dollars (US$243 million). In some big sequences shot in Vancouver, critically-wounded cop Alex Murphy returns to the Detroit police force in 2028 as a powerful cyborg thanks to multi-national OmniCorp’s robot technology. This part-human part-robot police officer is the key to OmniCorp’s plan to sell robocops around the world and earn billions of dollars. But what happens when the man in the machine goes rogue in his pursuit of justice? Abbie Cornish co-stars as his wife Ellen Murphy; Samuel L. Jackson as media mogul Pat Novak; Michael Keaton as the villainous CEO of Omni Corp. and Gary Oldman as Dr. Dennett Norton, the scientist who creates RoboCop.
Related: RoboCop with Joel Kinnaman at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
