How well did they do at the box office? How well did they fare after adjusting for inflation and/or ticket prices? Which film is actually the most successful? 1. Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Domestic: $82.3 mil + Foreign: $56.7 mil = $139.0 mil Adjusted for 2008 inflation: Domestic: $235.9 mil + Foreign: $162.5 mil = $398.4 mil 2. Star Trek: The Voyage Home: Domestic: $109.7 mil + Foreign: $23.3 = $133.0 mil Adjusted for 2008 inflation: Domestic: $209.3 mil + Foreign: $44.5 mil = $253.8 mil 3- 4. Star Trek: First Contact: Domestic: $92.0 mil + Foreign: $54.0 mil = $146.0 mil Adjusted for 2008 inflation: Domestic: $147.4 mil + Foreign: $86.5 mil = $233.9 mil 3- 4. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan: Domestic: $78.9 mil + Foreign: $18.1 mil = $97.0 mil Adjusted for 2008 inflation: Domestic: $190. 0 mil + Foreign: $43. 6 mil = $233.6 mil 5. Star Trek: Generations: Domestic: $75.7 mil + Foreign: $42.4 mil = $118,1 mil Adjusted for 2008 inflation: Domestic: $131.4 mil + Foreign: $73.6 mil = $205.0 mil 6. Star Trek: The Search for Spock: Domestic: $76.5mil + Foreign: $10.5mil = $87.0 mil Adjusted for 2008 inflation: Domestic: $161. 2 mil + Foreign: $22.1 mil = $183.3 mil 7. Star Trek: Insurrection: Domestic: $70.2 mil + Foreign: $42.4 mil = $112,6 mil Adjusted for 2008 inflation: Domestic: $106.0 mil + Foreign: $64.0 mil = $170.0 mil 8. Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country Domestic: $74.9 mil + Foreign: $19.1 mil = $94.0 mil Adjusted for 2008 inflation: Domestic: $126.0 mil + Foreign: $32.1 mil = $158.1 mil 9. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier: Domestic: $52.2 mil + Foreign: $18.0 mil = $70.2 mil Adjusted for 2008 inflation: Domestic: $92.6 mil + Foreign: $31.9 mil = $124.5 mil 10. Star Trek: Nemesis: Domestic: $43.3 mil + Foreign: $24.0 mil = $67,3 mil Adjusted for 2008 inflation: Domestic: $52.9 mil + Foreign: $29.3 mil = $82.2 mil I used this site http://www.leesmovieinfo.net/Adjuster.php to adjust for inflation and i used wiki, imbd.com & other sites to get as acurate box office numbers i could.
I've seen similar numbers before (the unadjusted ones), but I'm still confused. TMP did about 40 mil in RENTALS domestic in 79, and topped out at 55. Using the general 2. 5x multiplier of rentals to get gross, the domestic should be in the 110/130 range, which makes sense, given that most reports of trek overall worldwide gross on tmp was 175 mil in the early 80s (and that was, remember, when Paramount had even more of a tendency to underreport, to keep from paying out points to the stars.) David Gerrold and many others used that 175 mil figure repeatedly, so if it is even close to being correct, then the inflation figure you need to apply to TMP should make it even further into the #1 spot.
I have also seen those high numbers.One of the explanation is that The Motion Picture Actually earned a lot more than the $82,258,456 in domestic gross claimed by most sites. Reasoning is something to do about how national box office were collected back in 1979 & 1980. However, exact figures are difficult to obtain but some claim that The Motion Picture earned close to approx: $110.0 mil in domestic gross. This is all speculation and i didn't want use those numbers.
It is shocking how badly TOS movies did in foreign market with exception of The Motion Picture. Today if movie want to be blockbuster it need to gross a least approx 35-40% in foreign market in my opinion. The Motion Picture got 41% of it income overseas compare to The Wrath of Khan 19%, The Search for Spock 12%, The Voyage Home 18%, The Final Frontier 26% and The Undiscovered Country 20%. All the TNG movies did alright overseas roughly 36 to 38% of it income came there.
Therin of Andor can probably shed more light on this, but Paramount only did very limited overseas releases for the Trek films after TMP; in some countries, TWOK and TSFS didn't play at all and hadn't come out on VHS yet, necessitating the "mission recap" seen at the beginning of overseas releases of TVH.
I think a lot of it has to do with timing of the release. Just as Paramount is counting on JJ's ST XI to be huge for US summer, it'll be winter Down Under and not our best time for a big blockbuster. Big Christmas holiday films (our schools are off for almost six weeks over December/January) tend to work better here. TMP opened in most overseas markets only a week (or sometimes almost a month) after the US premiere. It was the biggie of Christmas 1979 here in Australia, stayed in city cinemas till Easter, was still in suburban cinemas in the May 1980 holidays - and some town hall auditoriums in the August holidays! Here in Oz, ST II opened about a month after its US premiere, so it could coincide with school holidays. But... despite ST III being quite crucial for spoilers, that film got held over for about three agonizing months, by which time the news as to how Spock would be reborn had been explained to death in all the media and fan outlets. People were no longer sweating to find out what happened. Air freighted novelizations had been in our bookshops for three months. It was much worse in Europe, though, where disappointing returns for ST II meant that ST III didn't get much distribution. ST IV and ST VI had most simultaneous releases. In UK and Europe, ST IV was actually promoted as the new hit comedy, "THE VOYAGE HOME: Star Trek IV". However, with no ST on TV for a number of years now, and the last prime time ST episodes in Australia being TNG Season One, everyone's rather starved for new ST and I have a gut feeling ST XI will do well internationally. (Especially with numerous countries getting it a few days earlier than USA, due to the International Date Line, and our new films previewing on Wednesdays, and premiering on Thursdays.)