STID "tracking" for $85-90 million opening [U.S. box office]

FTFY

 

All the speculation at BoxOfficeMojo points to a total box office grab somewhere in the $500 million range, with international looking to be 66% of the total take. That's a massive improvement over Trek '09 and sets the stage for another strong performance internationally for the inevitable third Bad Robot production.

 

Something overlooked by everyone when adjusting the old movies for ticket price inflation from 1979-1991 onward is the population of NA has increased by a great deal. Even though ST09 sold the most tickets of any Star Trek movie, the percentage of the population that went to see it was much less than TMP/TWOK/TVH maybe even TSFS?

 

Strange. Maybe here in my area of kent nobody is that into, sorry, 'NuTrek'

Or maybe we picked the wrong night, twice. Lol.

As for figures, opening weekend was actually pretty good here.

 

True, but movies also have a lot more competition from other sources of entertainment today than they did back then, and pirating is a much bigger issue now. Anyway, there's no need to set the films against each other. The first four Trek films and Star Trek were bona fide home runs in the domestic market by the standards of their respective eras.

 

STID did better than ST09 in 4 of the 5 days of release. It did better overall. I did better overseas. It simply was better box office. So much for the panic.

RAMA

 

It was actually mentioned that the film underperformed on Morning Express with Robin Meade this morning.

 

It might not surpass Trek09 domestically, but it seems to be making up for it overseas If Star Trek is increasing its popular outside of the US, then that could be a good thing for Trek 3.

 

FLOOP!

They actually marketed it overseas this time.

 

Sequels to well-liked films in this genre usually open bigger and then have shorter legs than the previous film, so the opening points to a lower domestic gross than Star Trek (unless we see something very unusual unfold, with a sci-fi action sequel that matches the legs of its predecessor). That's not a reason to panic. It'll still hit the numbers it needs to get a sequel. Paramount will be looking to increase appeal to women and the under-25s for the next one.

 

Justin Bieber will play Kruge .

 

If they want kids to see it, they need an animated series. Kids get into a light, fun animated Trek, then it's "ZOMFG THEY'RE DOING A MOVIE" and they'll spam the box office for STXIII.

 

No the lesson to be learned here is don't open the film against other movies that are in direct competition with both demographics (younger=Iron Man 3, women= The Great Gatsby).

Yancy

 

If you're going to release in the heat of the summer that's always going to be an issue. You just have to compete. And it's not always clear far in advance which films are going to hit big. Gatsby performed much better than initially expected.

 

But the problem is comparing it to the release of Trek 2009 which is very misleading. Trek 2009 went up against virtually no competition in the key demographics of under 25 and women. "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" was a modest hit, but underperformed with audiences and was quickly gone from theaters. The only "hit" film which skewed with women at that time was "Obsessed" with Beyonce, but even that was a modest hit and had begun to peter out by the time Trek hit screens. Paramount should have looked at a more advantageous release of mid-late April which would have essentially kicked off the summer and given it a head start against Iron Man.

As I said in another post Star Trek simply will never be able to compete with the likes of the Avengers, Star Wars, Iron Man, or Harry Potter's of this world. Paramount needs to be realistic with this franchise... there's money to be made, but there is still a stigma associated with the brand which it cannot overcome against those other franchises.

Yancy

 

Everything is easier with hindsight. The release date for STiD made sense when it was set. It's not as if people were worried about that release date prior to release and making predictions of an underperforming opening weekend. Quite the contrary. Iron Man 3 and Gatsby both ended up overperforming by a wide margin. If you could foretell a year or more in advance which films were going to do that it would be a lot easier to select good release dates.

 

STID is by no means bombing or flopping, it's just not doing the buisness Paramount hoped for. I think there was a moment there after the 2009 film where people got carried away and thought with the right director, budget, explosions and sex appeal that Trek can be traditional summer blockbuster and move out of the Thanksgiving or Christmas releases of past Trek movies.

Well yes and no. Trek can compete in the summer blockbuster arena and put up very solid, respectable numbers, but it can't do what Iron Man or Star Wars does and just break open the bank. The international box office will always be higher b/c overseas audiences aren't nowhere near as fickle and trendy as North American movie goers are.

The nerd/dork/loser stigma associated with the Star Trek franchise is just way, way, WAAAY too srong. There are many people out there that just won't give a Trek movie a chance no matter how many action stunts, A-list stars and sex you put in it. The franchise should actually be damn proud of itself that despite the stigma it actually competes very respectablly in the summer.

 

A lot of people don't bother going to the movie theater anymore though. A lot of people choose to wait for DVD/Blu-Ray.

 

Agreed. Ultimately you cannot compare the performance of a movie 30 years ago with today, too many things have changed.

 

Interesting post on hsx.com: