Going into the weekend, tracking services, including Paramount’s internal expectations, pegged Star Trek to gross between $50-60M. Well, while we don’t have a final number just yet, based on strong Thursday ($7M) and Friday ($24M) showings, Star Trek looks poised to far exceed those initial expectations. Details below the fold.
A big Friday
According to studio estimates, Star Trek brought in an impressive $24M on Friday. Add in the Thursday 7:00-midnight screenings and the film’s total cume stands at $31M through 29 hours. Most prediction sources now expect the movie to surpass $70M for the four-day frame. Here’s a round-up of those predictions:
- Nikki Finke (Deadline Hollywood Daily): $72-75M
- Steve Mason (Big Hollywood / Slash Film): $76.68M
- Box Office.com: $75M
Early indications for Int’l sales look good
A big test for Star Trek will be how well it does Internationally. To date Trek films have around two thirds of their their money domestically, while most tentpole films today try to achieve at least parity. For now there aren’t hard numbers for Star Trek, but Deadline Hollywood had this tidbit
"I hear the studio is celebrating international figures already: how "it’s pretty spectacular" that Star Trek’s Friday debut in the UK, Australia, and Germany made almost the same as Fox’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine’s in those territories last weekend. Star Trek opened day and date in 54 countries Friday, and the goal of this new pic was to finally attract more filmgoers overseas. "Remember, this movie franchise has never done $100M international before," an exec reminds me last night.
Of course UK, Australia and Germany are territories where Trek has traditionally performed well. The biggest test will be to see how it does in other non English-speaking European countries, and also in Asia (where Star Trek opens later in May).
Crushing Franchise Records
While the weekend is expected to come in below what X-Men Origins: Wolverine pulled in last weekend ($85.1M), there is no reason to be disappointed. Put it this way, in just three days and a few hours (from the Thursday sneaks), Star Trek will have pulled in more money than 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis achieved during its entire domestic run.
Star Trek will also shatter many other franchise records:
- Opening Day (Previously $13M for 1996’s Star Trek: First Contact)
- Opening Weekend (Previously $30.7M–also for Star Trek: First Contact)
Even adjusted for inflation, Star Trek will very easily be the highest grossing Trek film ever, surpassing the opening weekend of Star Trek: First Contact ($49.9M, adjusted).
TrekMovie will continue to monitor the performance of Star Trek, but so far so good.
I just hope this film has legs
Do we have adjusted numbers for TVH? Didn’t find any on bom.
cool
So how much money does it have to make for us to get a new TV Show? <one can dream
Money make the world go ’round, the world go ’round, that clinking clanking sound…
If it beats Wolverine will someone explain why the Enterprise was built in Iowa?
It’s gonna be hard to keep the great numbers up with Angels and Demons, and Terminator coming out consecutively, but I still think it’ll do the best of ALL Trek movies, and the ratings are an award unto itself.
sounds promising to me :)
I think this film will do the opposite of wolverine which happened to lose over 76 percent of last weekends gross. That is a horrible drop and the reflection of a disappointing film. I say star trek has a 40 to 45 percent drop next week and will be a steady earner based on word of mouth. If for some reason star trek has the same type of drop as wolverine i think the franchise is finished for at least a decade.
Isn’t it strange that TrekMovie.com is always up to date but StarTrek.com, the official site of Star Trek, is woefully behind.
Great site by the way, TrekMovie.com. I check it out everyday.
Well all, go see this movie again if you liked it.. I saw it twice already and expect to see it a third time before it leaves theaters.. i just saw it again this morning after seeing the first show on Thursday night.. It actually got better the second time around.. while yes there are some time holes, the movie is so entertaining.. that you just don’t care.. Karl Urban’s Dr. McCoy is AMAZING. It’s like he’s channeling DeForest Kelly, without it being a direct copy. I really enjoyed this film, and look forward to more adventures. I just hope they can translate some of this to a new TV show :)
You know, the Enterprise being build in Iowa bugged me at first but arent there multiple contruction yards for current military hardware? Perhaps Iowa’s shipyards are one of many…
Maybe the Enterprise being build there to help entice a young Kirk to go to Starfleet is part of the timeline trying to fix itself! Destiny at work…
@9: Startrek.com no longer is being updated. Hasn’t been since 2007, IIRC.
It’s tough to compare apples and oranges, but I’ll try.
Going into this weekend for me, TWOK was not only the best ever Star Trek movie, but probably the best “B-Movie” of all time.
Well, it’s still the best B-Movie of all time. But as for Star Trek movies in general, I have got to say that ST09 is #1.
That is not a slight to TWOK, as they were never on equal ground. It isn’t fair to Nick Meyer’s 1982 classic, but such is life.
Both are great films, although both utilize contrivances and overly “convenient” scenarios that set up the drama. But as thrilled as I was in the theater in 1982, (and as hard as it is to imagine) I was even more thrilled at this triumphant return.
I’ve thought about this all night. I went into it pretty sure that I was going to enjoy it, but I fully expected to say afterwards that it was my second favorite (surpassing TMP and TVH) Star Trek movie.
I was wrong. It is my favorite. I may not say that after years of repeat viewings and retrospect, but right now—-that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Bring on the next one. And in the meantime, I am going to watch this one again and again.
9.
Startrek.com is no longer being run full time. It hasn’t been updated since Startrekmovie.com came up laster year. I think the forums might still be active on tht site though.
5. 750 Mang – May 9, 2009
Shortly after the heroic death of George Kirk, the Iowa shipyards were erected by Starfleet to honor and commemorate the sacrifice. Hence, the Kelvin salt shaker in the diner, etc…
I have seen it 3 times and once at Imax. I will be going again Tonight. I work at a dealership and i know of at least 25 people who are going to see it tonight and or Sunday. Also a lot of my custermers are going to see it as well. So the word of mouth is realy strong here in Austin. I even seen one teeshirt that said Live long and Weired with a Cartoon pic of Spock. For those of you who do not know Austin has a saying. Keep Austin Weired. it just got changed a bit. Lol
GREAT MOVIE! I even got my twitter page STAR TREK’d up, lol. There was only 4 backgrounds at http://tweetcustom.com but nice looking. Hope yall liked the movie, the special effects have caught up to the tech era. The whole theatre was loving it, packed like sardines in there!
Loved the movie and since in has a strong story
And just all around amazing I feel like that is what
It needs to have long lasting legs. It will have other
Shows to run against and that will be the true test
To see how it’s leggs work.
How would I go about submitting a review? Just enter it here in the comments, or do you have a special section for this?
#16 boborci : “Shortly after the heroic death of George Kirk, the Iowa shipyards were erected by Starfleet to honor and commemorate the sacrifice. Hence, the Kelvin salt shaker in the diner, etc…”
That’s exaclty what I told friends at the theater. Well, maybe… not exactly. But I was thinking it. Sorta. Ok…had no idea…but it works for me!
Great job Bob, I’m already in line to go again tomorrow. One question though, if you see this, how do crewmembers work the turbo lift? I kept expecting them to say “bridge” or push a button but I don’t think they ever did. Did I miss something?
16. boborci – May 9, 2009
fascinating….both me and my brother (mid 40’s long time TOS fans demo!) were blown away by the film, and so much a richer experience for reading Countdown. These backstory elements of yours are so satisfying.
Far exceeded expectations, and more reverence to TOS than I had expected. All the actors spot on. Only downer was the dreadful brewery/20th century practical set work – please give Scotty a worthy engineering for the next one!
Much more of the same please…!
#5—“… will someone explain why the Enterprise was built in Iowa?”
Only if you explain why it makes any difference…
Why are Admiral Kirk (who is bound to a desk job) and the rest of the familiar characters from TOS aboard “the only ship in the quadrant” at the same time that Khan makes his escape from exile and wrests control of a starship with the sole purpose of exacting revenge upon Kirk?
Why do the primary scientists who have created the Genesis Device and are participating in its testing happen to be the former lover and illegitmate son of Jim Kirk?
Why is Admiral Kirk conveniently unable to treat the Genesis Device in the same manner in which he dealt with Nomad (set the transporter on “maximum dispersion” to render it non-threatening)?
The answer to all of these questions is the same.
I saw it yesterday and I can say this much: I CAN’T WAIT TO HAVE IT IN DVD!!!!!
These are critical times for star trek..
BTW it’s one of my favorite movies now liked it very much!!
Bob Orci can u please tell me why pike was in the wheel chair at the end of the film, was he paralyzed, i love the movie and have to see it again but i feel like i missed something about pike.
1. jonboc – May 9, 2009
Great job Bob, I’m already in line to go again tomorrow. One question though, if you see this, how do crewmembers work the turbo lift? I kept expecting them to say “bridge” or push a button but I don’t think they ever did. Did I miss something?
Wow. A repeat viewer. Thanks a ton!
As for the turbo lift… uhmm… let’s see…. floor optically selected by eye movement?
26. David – May 9, 2009
Bob Orci can u please tell me why pike was in the wheel chair at the end of the film, was he paralyzed, i love the movie and have to see it again but i feel like i missed something about pike.
The creepy thing they forced on him damaged his spine.
6. Datalore… “It’s gonna be hard to keep the great numbers up with Angels and Demons”
Maybe, maybe not. I offhand can’t think of anyone who actually liked “The DaVinci Code” movie, and I don’t see a huge amount of interest in “Angels” (even though it is the better of the two books, in my opinion.)
“Wolverine” has sunk a lot this week against “Star Trek”, but “Wolverine” had poor reviews and poor word-of-mouth whereas “Star Trek” has great reviews and great word-of-mouth (congratulations, Mr. Orci!)
#27—I think it is safe to say that there will be alot of repeat viewers.
Hey everyone – do you think word-of-mouth will keep Trek at No.1 for the next few weeks? Or at least keep the numbers significantly high?
Thank you very much Bob I appreciate it and me and my wife are seeing it a second time tomorrow.
#28—-Beep……beep beep.
:)
Join Starfleet. Next weekend go see it again. We need to make sure it doesn’t suffer the dreaded ‘second weekend dip’.
You’ve got your orders, cadet. Hop to it.
#23 Well, answer’s the same except for #5’s question. We have the film’s author on record. It’s a paean to George Kirk, that the shipyards were setup near Riverside, Iowa is believable, because the boborci quoth. :)
However, noting it was a ‘scar zone from the Xindi weapon of 2153’ is good too.
And did I hear McCoy barking an order to “Nurse Chapel” in there?
28 – So is he paralyzed for good or what?
#27 “floor optically selected by eye movement?”
I knew it! That’s what I told my friends at the theater…sorta.
Well…maybe I didn’t exactly say that…ok, I didn’t say it all. But it works for me!
And the TOS ship acceleration sound from Naked Time…BIG thank you for that! (or whosever idea it was to use it!)
For those wondering why the Enterprise was built on the ground as opposed to in space…
Did it ever occur to any of you that because of the Kelvin incident in which no explanation was figured out as to why a black hole anomaly occurred with a ridiculously powerful ship, it made starfleet a bit more paranoid about building their ships up in space exposed to the dangers that could occur up there?
I’m noticing a lot of people aren’t using their heads for figuring out plot devices of this film. Many are questioning how a mining ship can be so powerful lol Ahhh hello, did you catch the ridiculous amount of Borg colored power channeling through ever panel of that ship? I’m not expecting people to get that it’s Borg technology but come on people, use your imagination. It’s obviously not just a mining ship!!
Great movie, I’m going to see it for my third night in a row.
boborci, I have a question, [which is spoiler for anyone who hasn’t seen the film so stop reading right *here* if you haven’t] that scene where the Enterprise jettisons capsules into the final black hole, were those multiple warp cores? Because that makes so much sense for a starship to have it’s amazing that it hasn’t been done before.
#35—“And did I hear McCoy barking an order to “Nurse Chapel” in there?”
I didn’t catch that, but I hope that both she and Yeoman Rand are introduced in the sequel.
@Bob Orci–THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!! I’m planning on seeing it 20 times in the theater.
Also, I’m hoping that you’ll find a way to restore the timelines and bring back Vulcan and Romulus in the ‘hopefully’ trilogy.
I LOVE this movie, and can’t wait to see what you guys do for the next one.
Oh, and have you considered going to any conventions? (I have tickets for Las Vegas, and would love to see you and Alex there.) Just thought I’d mention it.
THANKS AGAIN FOR BRINGING TREK BACK!!!!!
28 – boborci
I have come up with a name for the Vulcan who has the statue fall on him.
It came to me on opening night – I turned to my friend and said
“His name was Splot”
What do you think? Is it worth canonizing?
43: Everyone knows it was Solkar
Bob Orci thanks to you and the “supreme court” for a wonderfull movie. Going again for the 5th time tonight. Can’t wait to see what you bring with the new Transformers film and Star Trek XII
May I suggest that the next Trek film just be called To Boldly Go
I mean Surak…
To Anyone..maybe borborci….Does the movie state any reason why Kirk was projected by Spock to exactly the location at Delta Vega that he ended up on?
I mean..what a coincidence….or did how young spock know where Old Spock was? I really haven’t found an answer in the movie to tah question..
#35–Where did McCoy call to Nurse Chapel? I’ve seen the movie twice, and would like to catch that the next 18 times I go.
Thanks.
#40–NO ONE can replace EVER replace Majel Barrett-Roddenberry!!! May she live long and prosper in her next life.
by the way…..Wonderful movie….great Star trek, no matter what the answer
You did indeed hear “Nurse Chapel..”
My wife and I saw it at the first morning showing at the pictures today in the UK.
My wife shed a tear at the begining to the death of Kirks father, and laughed as the film progressed, so many homages to the original that we both came out smiling and wanting to go back and see it next weekend just to re-watch it again.
To everyone that worked on the film, if you read this, from an old fan that was very worried about this film, I was wrong to worry.
Thank you for a wonderful character driven film that rekindled the excitement Star Trek always gave me.
40
Indeed…and much like Quinto was meant for Spock, I believe there is only one clear choice for Rand: 24’s Mary Lynn Rajskub.