The film stars Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Doug Jones, and Ariadna Gil. Directed by Guillermo del Toro and produced by Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro.
Del Toro was born in Mexico in 1964. His first feature film was Cronos in 1993. For Pan's Labyrinth, the funding came from Esperanto Films, the production company owned by Cuarón.
The film did run in festivals, notably at New York ,Toronto, and Cannes, where it premiered. It released wide commercially in Jan of 2007 in North America by Picturehouse. The film grossed $37.6 million domestically, but another $45.6 million in foreign markets. Now you can find the film on DVD, which was released by New Line Home Entertainment. In it's first week of DVD sales, the film was #1 in sales and rentals, with $6.5 million in sales. Currently has sold for $41.7 million to date, not including Blu-Ray sales.
When the film was released, it was widely acclaimed by critics and audiences. It's aggragate critic score can be viewed at rottentomatoes, with a score of %96 positive. Also, it scores an 8.5 out of 10 with audiences on IMDB, landing it at the #69 of the top 250 rated.
I could not find a press release of the film online. However, marketing the film was a success. Guillermo del Toro kept a journal while filming filled with notes, drawings, and thoughts. The marketing campaign asked his fans to create their own journals online, where del Toro could pick his favorites and winners would be included on the DVD. This created a great word of mouth for the film. The website itself was very well done, winning Webby awards for best movie website.
The teaser posters for the film first focused on the imaginative creatures and monsters created by del Toro. The later posters and images paint a picture of the main character, Ofelia, staring up at a large, magnificent, magical tree. It conveys the movies dark but fantasy land.
In selling this film, they targeted fans of del Toro and expanded upon it with an angle on the fantasy side of the film. I believed it worked perfectly, as people were satisfied with the magical tale, but even more surprised, positively, at how mature the story turned out to be.
