Viacom Chief Touts Star Trek As ‘Unqualified Blockbuster’ As Film Reaches $380M Globally

The Star Trek box office performance is almost in the history books, but the film is still out there and has finally hit the $380M globally. Yesterday Viacom’s CEO touted the film to investors as a ‘unqualified blockbuster’ and talked up the future profit potential of Trek as well. Details and the latest box office below, plus another Star Trek musical interlude.

  

Viacom Chief Talks Trek
Yesterday afternoon Viacom (the parent company of Paramount Pictures) reported its financial results for the second quarter. Although profits were down from last year, Paramount still beat industry estimates for earnings per share by a little bit. In discussing the performance of the various parts of Viacom, CEO Philippe Dauman again touted the performance of Transformers and Star Trek

Paramount Pictures’ performance in the second quarter was highlighted by the box office success of its tentpole films STAR TREK and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Both films are unqualified blockbusters that will generate substantial profit as they move through their windows

Picking up on that future profit, Viacom’s CFO Tom Dooley noted that Star Trek and Transformers 2 will ‘drive a lot of profits’ later in the year as those titles become available on DVD & Blu-ray.

Dauman also noted that franchise sequels (like Transformers) enjoy savings in "awareness marketing" costs, which boosts profitability because consumers are already aware of the brand. That same logic would be applied to the next Star Trek film as Paramount already invested significantly this year in re-building the Trek brand, and so a future film could be seen as having greater profit potential.

Box Office Update: $380 Million
After 82 days in release Star Trek is now in just a few hundred theaters around the world, with probably just a few more weeks before it is gone completely. Last weekend (its 12th weekend) it was ranked 18th with $439k in domestic sales. As of yesterday Star Trek had a domestic total of $254,170,379 and an international total of  $125,814,933. Combined with the domestic sales, Star Trek’s global total gross is $379,985,312. So (when today’s numbers come in) Star Trek will have passed $380M, which was always the upper range of our estimates. And Star Trek may still have some life left in it. It is actually now outperforming Iron Man on a day to day basis, and that film went on to make another $4M after its 82nd day.

Star Trek’s spot on the various charts has mostly remained steady over the last couple of weeks, with Harry Potter 6 pushing it down one spot on the yearly global rank. Within a week or so Star Trek will drop a couple of points to 5th on the 2009 domestic chart (and all time domestic charts) as both Harry Potter 6 and The Hangover pass it.

‘Star Trek’ Ranks Domestic Global
2009 films 3 6
All time 47 124
All time (adjusted) 182 NA
Trek franchise 1 1
Trek franchise (adjusted) 1 2

 

Enterprising Young Men – Live
Finally we leave you with another live performance from the Star Trek score. Here is "Enterprising Young Men" from the V Festival Internacional de Música de Cine in Ubeda, Spain.


 

  

Bring it home
You can pre-order Star Trek on 3-disk Blu-ray, 2-disk DVD, or 1-disk DVD, at Amazon. Or pre-order get the 3-disk Blu-ray Gift Set at Best Buy.

 

 

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gives me chills:) beautiful stuff!

Awesome Trek!! Best year ever. Can’t Wait until 2011

Unqualified? That doesn’t sound right.

Why did Transformers 2 make a lot more money than Star Trek????

Sweet. Nothing beats a live performance.

4.

Because most of the movie-going public are barely one step above lobotomized. ;) But they like to spend money on “shiny” and “noisy”.

I love that soundtrack!

First?

Beautiful rendition of “Enterprising Young Men”! Wish I could have been there to hear the live performance. Can’t wait for the movie release on DVD!

Wow, I was way off…

Transformers may have made more money than Trek in the theaters but it wasnt a good movie. Once these movies are available to own, Trek will be sought out much more than Transformers.

I never get tired of say it…I told you so, Star Trek Lives!

I think I might have to break down and get this movie in Blueray. I have a blueray player but have been slow to buy the discs since my TV is only 720p but maybe this Christmas Santa will allow me to buy myself a 1080p TV….

1,701st?

Decloaking . . .
#4 Harry ole boy: because people are idiots and love to buy crap.
Recloaking. }:-D>

Bravo! Fantastic live performance! Often times, when I hear other performances of well known scores (esp. Trek scores), the timing is off (too fast, too slow, or, worse, speed up and slow down throughout). These guys were right on!

Did they do more from the score?

Thanks for posting that!

I agree with Red Shirt Diaries at #3. “Unqualified” doesn’t sound right. It sounds like Star Trek, according to Viacom, doesn’t meet the qualifications to be a blockbuster. It more than meets them.

I’m one of those dusty old ‘trekkies’ (yeah..I said trekkie) who only had the original series growing up, I was very surprised how much I liked this movie and have watched it more times in the theater than the previous films

Enterprising Young Men is one of the best tracks on the OST. Its incredibly bombastic, epic and it makes me remember that title card slowly spinning into view from the intro.

It’s been a phenomenal year for the Star Trek franchise.

“Enterprising Young Men”

Cause women are just receptionists.

#3 and #15: In the business world, an “unqualified” statement means that the statement stands without any limitations, commentary, or other hedging. In other words, it is a good thing.

#6: “Because most of the movie-going public are barely one step above lobotomized.” We should be careful at dismissing the movie going public. It is difficult to justify saying “Yay! Big box office for Trek means people appreciate what we love” while at the same time saying “Boo! Big box office for Transformers means people are idiots”. We can’t legitimately have it both ways.

Man…….amazing live performance!

…”that will generate substantial profit as they move through their windows.”
So that’s the industry’s speak when moving from theatrical film to various home video and PPV incarnations. Ahh soo.

I like the fact they kept the original series font for the DVD’s and Blu Ray boxes.

Both of Those Movies were Shiny and Noisy and Both of Those Movies Sucked.

I wants it now! It may not be the best soundtrack, but it is very, very good!

#6

I couldn’t agree with you more. Do you know how many kids will go to a movie nowadays, only to be doing something else entirely during the movie? I was baffled by all the teens who were texting during ‘Star Trek’. They probably did it during ‘Transformers’ too.

Once the DVD comes out, the ST franchise will pick up more fans. Those that say, ‘I am not watching Star Trek, I hate Sci-Fi”. By the time Something, Something is released, if the reviews are good, it has the potential to hit 500 mil worldwide.

JJ needs to do an outreach to the overseas market over the next 2 years. Really get them pumped up and bring on new fans. I would be more then happy to travel the world talking up Star Trek. JJ call me 555-1701.

All you JJ haters can eat it! Trek is back thanks to all of the fans to were open to this strange new world! Can’t wait for the sequel.

That’s my favorite bit from the soundtrack. Wonderful rendition.

Good ol’ Star Trek is back again! Lots of work to do on getting it known internationally. As some have said, hopefully the home video release will hook new viewers this coming winter.

Unqualified – Definition:
1. lacking required qualifications: having no academic, professional, or vocational qualifications
2. given without reservation: not limited or modified by any condition or reservation
3. total: complete and absolute: “an unqualified success”

I’m guessing they mean the second and third definitions and not the first.

#4 … Because Transformers is for kids and teens. It’s a 2 hour long toy/video game commercial. That demographic is where the $$$ is at.

I couldn’t be more pleased that Star Trek did as well as it did. It was a terrific adventure that everyone I know who saw it enjoyed. And by the way, it is still playing in some first run Houston theaters!

Very nice soundtrack. It grows through the movie and builds a strong theme that could be used as the new iconic theme for all future Trek.

#47 of all time domestically?

Too bad that number has to change. ;D

Wow Star Trek got less money world wide than Superman Returns globaly, the future of that movie got scrubbed, thank goodness!

STAR TREK > MICHAEL BAY

Actually that’s the Enterprising Young Men segment in the End Titles, but awesome nonetheless.

# 4 – Harry, it’s also because a lot of people have fecal matter where their gray matter should be.

@ 37. I thought of that exactly…. But i think the segment or ‘theme’ is called ‘enterprising young men’…. actually not referring to the ACTUAL track of the soundtrack. But i’m just guessing.

As a high school band director, I want a group that can play something like that…someday. I teach in a very small school.

Regarding the movie, I predict $383.5 million now. I was hoping for $390-$400 million, but will have to beat that with the next one!

A question for people who did not like the star trek movie. Why are you on this site?

That is not ‘enterprising young men’ That is actually the end titles cut up and re-edited for our listening enjoyment.

#38 “fecal matter”

Is that a close cousin to red matter?

(runs and hides)

Hey, check out the gorgeous chick playing the violin in the Youtube piece. She’s on the left!

She could string my bow anytime! GROWRR!!

It will be an interesting final (if there is such a thing) figure on the gross of ST: XI once the DVD, BluRay, Directors cut, Best Buy, gift sets, re-mix, etc versions of the film come out in Nov. Since the studio gets all the profit on a DVD/BluRay sale as opposed to the split a studio has to make with theaters.

I wonder what the Las Vegas Hilton is thinking now that they saw the success of the film after the closing of ST:TE? What ever the caise or reason for the closing, Ceder Fair not wanting to pay more or Hilton asking for more rent, what ever. They should held out with a month to month lease until after the film opened. Even go so far as to have some premiere at ST:TE to rake in some money.

Now that place (still) sits empty with no takers in site it fill up the space. But there willbe some relief in that there will be a semi-Quarks at the Space Quest casino bar during the CON. One of the former Quarks bartenders is selling a new recipe book of space drinks at the CON.

@35

Superman Returns also coast $100mm more than Star Trek. That’s gonna eat into the profitability equation.

In the news today, Corporate Guy says nice things about his own corporation’s products. World is stunned.

Spend a disproportionate amount of the marketing budget for the next Star Trek flick in the international markets.

And maybe Tom Hanks should be in the next film to drive international interest. Great actor..that happens to be a HUGE Trek fan.

(Maybe the rest of the world will discover Trek on video later this year.)

Can’t believe The Hangover sneaked up on Star Trek. Who’d have thought? VERY funny movie though.

42,

I’m pretty sure it is EYM, I have the soundtrack.