And I'm someone excited for both.

But After Earth has Will Smith, Jaden Smith, and effects.
Pacific Rim has Idris Elba, dude from SOA, and effects.

Though I absolutely love Guillermo Del Toro (Blade 2 is woefully underrated), and I think Shyamalan has about as many misses as hits (love three of them, hate three of them, indifferent on the other one), there is NO director that draws box office solely on name. Zero. Even Spielberg can't do it domestically, as Tintin showed. Directors mean absolutely nothing for box office reliability.

Stars and effects do matter.

Both films will make big money, I'm fairly certain.
But After Earth will make more.

The real debate should be After Earth vs. Oblivion, as Cruise still has drawing power. Cruise vs. Smith is far closer to a fair fight, though again, Smith is the favorite.

I get the sense from the After Earth trailer that Jaden is more of the star of this one than Will, that Will is the supporting role. Which may give Oblivion a fighting chance.

But again, Pacific Rim would have to be a huge critical success with an A+ Cinemascore to make more than After Earth. And After Earth would have to have horrifying bad critical response and a low CinemaScore (B or worse).

Funny that people bring up Avatar in regards to the After Earth trailer. That tells you about its money making potential right there.