Star Trek Now 2nd Highest Grossing Film of 2009 Domestically & 4th Highest Globally

Star Trek continues to battle it out with Angels and Demons at the domestic box office, with the movie coming in a close second on Tuesday with $3.4M vs. Angels & Demons $3.6M. This brings Trek’s domestic total up to $155.5M which means it has passed Wolverine for total sales and is now the 2nd highest grossing film of 2009. 

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Star Trek headed to top of the charts
For domestic box office Star Trek has been the fastest big earner of the year, taking just seven days to cross $100M and 11 days to cross $150.

Here are the top 5 films of 2009 so far (via BOM)

2009 movies Domestic box office
(Millions)
Monsters v. Aliens $191.3
Star Trek $155.5
X-Men Origins: Wolverine $153.5
Fast and Furious $153.1
Paul Blart: Mall Cop $146.1

Even though two big movies are opening this Memorial Day weekend (Terminator Salvation and Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian), Star Trek could still go over the top to be #1 by this time next week (possibly over $200M). Of course mega films like Harry Potter, UP, and Transformers (and possibly Terminator) will end up in the final top slots, but Star Trek has a good chance of being in the top 5 by the end of the year.

One thing working in Star Trek’s favor right now is the first reviews of Terminator Salvation (opening at midnight shows tonight) are not very good. Rotten Tomatoes rating for Terminator is 38%. Night at the Museum 2 isn’t faring much better, garnering a 50% rating. Star Trek’s rating is still at 95%.

Different story globally – Trek strong in some markets but struggling in others
Although Star Trek is a hit ‘with legs’ domestically, so far it has been a mixed bag internationally. Star Trek is currently in 4th place for 2009 global box office, when you add in its international sales of 67.7M.

2009 movies Global box office
(Millions)
Monsters v. Aliens $334.3
Fast and Furious $323.9
X-Men Origins: Wolverine $276.5
Star Trek $223.3
Taken $220.8

Although Star Trek is performing better than any previous Trek film overseas, it is still struggling in many big markets. Star Trek has performed very well in the UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, all of which have been traditionally good for Trek. But in most other countries Star Trek has not performed like a summer blockbuster tentpole (with Wolverine outselling it 2-1 in many markets). In France, Korea and Italy, Star Trek opened in second place and in Spain it opened in 3rd place behind the Hannah Montana movie and the 2nd week of Wolverine.

Star Trek still has more markets to open internationally, but it is likely to make around 1/3 of its money overseas, which is about the same as the last few films in the franchise.

IMAX REMINDER: Star Trek limited run ends this week
Star Trek is playing at IMAX theaters around the world, but that all ends with Night at the Museum opens on Friday. Some theaters will be running Star Trek midnight shows over the weekend, but if you want to be sure to see Star Trek on IMAX (and trust me it is worth it), then you better hurry up.
 

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Way to go!

Monsters vs. Aliens was incredible. xD Hysterically funny.

But I’m so happy to see ‘Trek as numero dos! Fantastic! ^__^

I heard that the promotion overseas was rather piss poor compared to here in the states.

I wish they could have had more IMAX screens in Canada. I missed out seeing it there.

Saw it a 3rd time last night. Gets better with each viewing. Might go one more time in a weeks time before its out of theaters here.

I’m going tomorrow, 5th time, 2nd in Imax, 1st in an Imaz Dome. This movie deserves the business. I wonder if it will earn anyone outiside of the tech categories an Oscar Nom?

Any news on how it is doing in Japan?

The Promotions here in Ireland i thought was very good, there where posters everywhere, competitions on the a few radio stations that ran for weeks , pullout magazine in the papers , of course the breakfast ceral and burger king stuff , decent amount of ads on tv. Plus other small things like normal book shops putting all there star trek books on display in the window , or dvd shops getting lots of the old movies in .

so yea the movie go the promotions of a big summer blackbuster here anyway.

I just saw that here in Wellington New Zealand the Embassy theatre (where they had the massive Lord of the Rings ROTK premier) is increasing it’s run of ST:09 as it was initially only there for one week only but is “back by popular demand” this week and has equal showings with A&Ds.
It would be rude not to go see it again there (tally so far is 3 including Sydney premier)!!
If anyone has the chance to come to Wellywood this is the cinema to go to!!

Does it look any good in IMAX dome? I saw it in normal Imax, but there is a dome near me too. It is great for documentaries and all, but I’m not sure how it would look for normal movies.

Again, best trek movie of all time!!!!!

For all of the lip-service the franchise pays to diversity, Star Trek has always been fairly “ethnocentric.” As such, it isn’t terribly surprising that the movie is doing far better in the Anglosphere than in areas with other cultural influences.

This is all too surreal to me! Trekkies are spreading faster than Swine Flu!

The key is it’s done extremely well and guaranteed a sequel.

That it isn’t the highest grossest movie matters not.

That the franchise is alive and financially viable, does!

News for folks like me

IMAX here are going to show Star Trek until end of the first week of June. Individual IMAX’s may differ but this is for certain for the one in Glasgow (the ONLY one in Scotland :( )
So you have a bit more time over here

#15 Well said dalek!

Yes, it’s always nice to be in the same company as Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Sort of takes a little of the wind out of one’s sails.

it will be interesting to se what the final box office tally will be, then there is the dvd sales after wards should be nice an profitable fo the studio and the franchise.

We might get another 2 or three sequels out of it.

@15 Well said, bring on the sequel!

I see this bringing in the same numbers as ‘Batman Begins’ did, around $250 million domestically.

I’m goin’ to see it for the fourth time friday…….here on Brazil the movie didn’t fared so well in the box office….

but everytime I went to see it, people came out talking very high of the movie, and my brother and cousin are on the way to become Trek fans, especially my cousin. I showed her Return of the Archons and she loved it! she wants to follow Landru now! LOL.

Anxious for my 4th time no Trek

\\//

(sorry for the rather bad english……)

Anxious for my 4th time ON Trek

sorry…….

I love this movie! I am hoping that we get a Second Chance to see the New Enterprise in Action! I for one at least hope the next movie has Nurse Chapel in it and a Mention of the Prime Directive!

McCoy did yell at Nurse Chapel off screen, next movie scarlett johansson can play her, shwing.

Yes Gustavo, but is she of the body?And where can we meet for festival?(Not to be confused with Seinfels Festivus for the restvof us ha ha!

#7
Erm . . . .What promotions?
Sporadic TV ads, magazine pics, though the magazines were british. Radio spots? Jerry Ryan. . . I really thought the promotion was piss poor here. Espically in comparison to Wolverene.

Yeah, Wolverine was still #1 here in my side of the world during Trek’s opening weekend. But I noticed Trek was on 40 less theaters than Wolverine here, so that may have contributed to it. I think Wolverine (X-Men) is still a more recognizable name/brand here. Kids are more inclined to drag their parents to see it, same as with the likes of Transformers. It’s quite sad, really, because I hope that more of the younger generation will see Trek and get into the franchise, as it still remains to be one of the best examples of good science there is.

Eep, I meant Science Fiction in my post (#27.) Sorry.

In Venezuela the movie had no real publicity so that might explain how it is doing. But anyway the WOM has been great. People talk about it and I’m impressed, I feel like I was the only real Trekkie in the city, lol

20. Fletch Gannon — Batman Begins only made $205 million domestically, not $250 million. Worldwide, it made $372.7 million. Star Trek should make around $230 million domestically and another $140 million from foreign markets, for a total of around $370 million worldwide. So, globally, Trek looks like it will do about as well as BB. :)

Go Star Trek, Go Star Trek!

Seeing it on an IMAX is amazing. I did 4hrs of driving to see it a 2nd time on IMAX and it was worth it. It makes normal theater screens and sound systems feel like small TV sets. If you have to take a day off work to go see it at an IMAX, do it. You’ll never have the opportunity again and it is beyond words how much better it is on an IMAX screen.

Let’s not get carried away here. I am just glad ST is back, is well done AND is successfull. It’s been years since that was the case.

Although maybe more $$$ at the boxoffice might hasten the return of ST on the small screen. (Bob, hows about it?)

Saw Trek on IMAX dome as second viewing. Do not recommend it. Too much going on in some of the scenes that it was hard to concentrate in the domed IMAX. Couldn’t get the full picture. I’ve seen shorter, calmer (?) documentaries there but the 2 hour movie gave me a headache. I might have to go to an IMAX theater with stadium seating to get it done right (but the sound–OMG!!!).

#3 As a UK citizen I would certainly say the coverage and publicity was good here- but it wasn’t great. I think word of mouth made the big difference. Plus many long time fans went more than once, so that will have helped the numbers.
My real worry is the next movie. Unless they can come up with something quite spectacular to cover for the diminishing novelty value of seeing a new group of actors, then I fear we could end up with the usual slide in interest. They have a far bigger load on them for the next movie.

There was almost no promotion here in Singapore. A couple of TV spots running up to opening day, a couple of newspaper articles trying to play up a Trek-Wars rivalry (most that felt forced), nary a contest to win tie-in merchandise. It’s almost as if the movie’s been forgotten here, even though it was #1 in it’s opening week, and #2 in its sophomore.

I’m glad to say good word-of-mouth is allowing it to maintain steam though! Many of my friends are now looking to me to provide them with further info about Trek.

Not to be a killjoy or anything, but this Memorial Day weekend is going to be brutal for Trek’s box office take. With Terminator: Salvation and Night At The Museum 2 coming out this weekend, you can pretty much guarantee that Trek will be pushed down to #4 in the top 5, MAYBE #3 if Angels and Demons has a big drop-off. T4 is the new shiny object everyone’s going to be distracted by, even though it’s getting abysmal ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and other review sites, and NatM2 is the kid-friendly feature for the holiday weekend.

So, yeah…Star Trek’s going to have a LOT of competition this weekend. Let’s hope it can retain a top-5 spot.

Just saw it for my second time again in IMAX (first time was opening night!) and loved it even more the second time around! What a truly spectacular movie. IMAX is a must!

Wow! Comments on TREK from Venezuela? from Brazil? UK, Canada, Singapore, New Zealand, Scotland and countless others in previous threads on this web site. paraphrasing Scotty, “ees exciting!!!”

I am so pumped reading comments from so many other countries. It truly is amazing that Star Trek has been a part of our culture (both here and abroad) for the past 43 years!

That is so exciting!!!!

I’ve said this before, but am repeating it again. Anthony, you have to be proud seeing how your site is so internationally read; having such international participation; and providing us with such international insight.

Just saw Terminator Salvation.

Star Trek has nothing to worry about.

#3. Devon – May 20, 2009
I heard that the promotion overseas was rather piss poor compared to here in the states.

Promotion overseas?!?! What promotion? What is Star Trek???

41. Santos (Portugal) – May 21, 2009

In Portugal there was virtually no promotion. Only in cable networks..no promotion in national channels. Angels and Demons was all over the place…

In my city (Funchal – Madeira island), almost no one went to see the movie…

Just saw it again for the 4th time at the Imax in Fort Lauderdale. The 11:00 showing was 2/3 full, the one before at 8PM was sold out and they said it was selling out all week. NATM is starting on Friday but the guy in the ticket booth said that they might add some late night showings of Star Trek because demand is still so high.

Got to say.. the prmotion here in the UK (IMO) was awful, I have seen two bill boards for it, and the TV adverts only came (in any real quantity) around 3 days after release. The publicity that there was, seemed mainly down to newspapers, and TV reporting on it, rather than any push by Paramount… felt very much that Paramount just counted on the UK as being a “safe” market.

I am still waiting for my copy of the trade paper back of Countdown to be delivered.. and release here in the UK is now stated as the 29th of May! I appreciate that Paramount have no control over this, but you would figure that the “publicity machine” would maybe work a tad more in unison with other parties.

That all said, the IMAX in London, has been completely sold out with each screening between release and the 4th of June (so much so that they have introduced 02:30AM! and 05:30AM! screenings).

I went to my local VUE cinema (in Staines) last night, to watch the film for the 3rd time (loved it all over again), and was very pleased to see the cinema full, not bad for a Weds night!..

NO movie deserves to open in third place behind the Hannah Montana movie.

Well… maybe Insurrection.

still going strong in the Uk, went to see it again last night and every showing was fully booked! shame i got in late and had to sit in the front row.

Im sure it will stay a strong film for a while yet from word of mouth.

I hate to be harsh but the reason for the poor results in those countries is because they simply don’t get Star Trek and never will unless it was a brainless movie like Wolverine and called something other than Star Trek.

I’m not too surprised about the “overseas” box office results. Paramount knew they had an uphill battle and the did try some new things, like the premier road show. If “Star Trek” does as well as previous movies in the series then at least it has not slipped in popularity and can, hopefully, continue an upward march.

As far as I know, First Contact was (an maybe will be) the biggest Trek-hit in Germany so far. It seems not, that Star Trek will top that.

# 47

So, why Illuminati runs well then in this countries?

I think it’s just not the right time for Star Trek in this countries. That’s all.