‘Star Trek’ sales exceed expectations
Chris Pine plays Captain Kirk in "Star Trek."
The internet has been abuzz with Trekkies anticipating, reviewing and planning viewings of “Star Trek” the movie, which opened Friday. Paramount expected the movie to pull in about $50 million on opening weekend. However, “Star Trek” sold $76.5 million worth of movie tickets over the weekend.
Midnight at the IMAX
“Star Trek” made $4 million just from midnight showings Friday morning. It also made $8.2 million from IMAX showings.
That figure beats the previous record for IMAX sales, which belonged to “The Dark Knight.” Last year’s release, the latest in the “Batman” series, “The Dark Knight,” pulled in $6.3 million from IMAX tickets.
Turning a profit
“Star Trek” had a budget of $140 million, but Paramount vice chairman Rob Moore believes that the movie will make $200 million over the summer. So any short term loans taken out to produce this film should be repaid in short order.
Considering that ticket sales are more than halfway to paying back the cost of the film, I’m sure the filmmakers won’t be seeking debt relief any time soon.
Golden tomatoes
Much of the “Star Trek” movie’s opening-weekend success could be thanks to overall glowing reviews of the film. On popular movie review web site Rotten Tomatoes, “Star Trek” got 96 percent good reviews — amazingly high marks at a site known more for its criticism than its raves.
Abrams got it right, Moore said, by appealing to both hardcore “Star Trek” fans as well as moviegoers who may not have been familiar with the 1960s television series and the many movies and TV spin-offs it spawned, says the Associated Press.
Back to the future
“Star Trek,” which is the 11th movie based on the cult classic TV show started in the 1960s, tells the back stories of Captain Kirk (played by Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto) and the rest of the original crew.
More moneymakers
Last week’s top box office blockbuster, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” came in second place for ticket sales this weekend with $27 million. That brings to total for box office sales for “Wolverine” to nearly $130 million.
“We think we withstood the attack of ‘Star Trek,’ if you will, and will settle into a long, successful run.” said Chris Aronson, senior vice president of domestic distribution for 20th Century Fox.
Lazy movie, lazy sales
The weekend’s other wide release, “Next Day Air,” made only $4 million over the weekend, the same amount “Star Trek” made from midnight showings only. The Associated Press classifies “Next Day Air” as a “stoner comedy,” so perhaps it’ll pull in some more ticket sales as its target audience gradually gets around to making it to the theater.
Projected earnings
Other summer movies expected to make big bucks at the box office include “Terminator: Salvation” and “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” However, “Star Trek” is still expected to continue to pull in a healthy amount of cash over the summer.
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The last few years have been rife with series reboots, and some of them are really good. The update of Batman was amazing, and The Dark Knight is perhaps one of the few sequels that is as good as or better than the original. Total die hard fans will likely have their complaints, but Leonard Nimoy had veto power (contractually) over Spock, and he gave the film the thumbs up. If the original Spock gave it his endorsement (well, he was well paid) then it has to be good. I’m waiting for the new Terminator movie, maybe it will make up for how lousy T3 was.