• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Why is the new film doing so terribly outside the US..???

I can't say much for how TOS was recieved here in Australia (I wasn't born at that point), but I know that DS9, VOY and ENT were all shelved to after midnight slots on tv here, if they were shown at all (usually replaced by sports of some kind and the missed episodes were never repeated). And since I can remember, repeats of TOS or TNG have never, ever been shown on free to air tv, which is what the majority of people have access to. No one seems to care too much about Star Trek, the times I've gone and seen the movie the place has been mostly empty- even when I went on opening night to a popular cinema it was only half full! Its just not something we've been exposed to here, at all :( My family and I are pretty much the only people I know who love it!

When I was doing my course to become a library technician, (2000-2002) I was amazed just how many people doing the Star Trek fans. I think there were about 8 out of a group of about 30.

Because the series was on so late at night I was buying DS9 and Voyager on video. The show was released on video well before it aired on TV.

My videos would do the rounds. I, and my sons would watch them first, I would then lend them to a neighbour (who had to look at it quickly), when I got it the video back from him I would hand it over by the youngest person doing our course (she was 19), she would than turn them over to another woman doing the course (aged in her 40s), and she would in turn turn them over to a man doing the course (aged in his 40s, he would watch them with his daughters), then they were handed over to a second neighbour (who was sometimes slow to get around to watching the video.

In all that is 10 people who watched each video.

I ended up giving away all my videos to a friend of my son when I moved as I no longer have a video player and I plan to buy all the DVDs when I can afford to.
 
Maybe after the movie has finished and we know the final gross we can make a chart that shows the relative popularity of Star Trek compared to the USA :)
 
Possibly because the movie wasn't as heavily promoted as it was in the US.

that could have played a part this time.
by a lot of reports they didnt do a lot of heavy promotion until almost time for the movie to come out.

while in the states they really ran that third trailer a lot and then went to a lot of targeted ads.

here is the earlier thread
 
Star Trek went underground after the BBC lost out to Channel 4 in 2001. So the new film has a lot of ground to make up, since the franchise has been mismanaged for almost a decade.

In Britain, Star Trek plays a huge part in the survival of niche Freeview/Satellite channel Virgin 1. It runs ENT, TNG, DS9 & VOY to audiences in the tens of thousands.

Mainstream channels like the BBC and ITV (who get audiences in the millions) haven't shown Star Trek for ages. Probably a year ago, 1 or 2am on a Saturday morning, BBC2 finished with TNG. Showing it in a coffin slot with Malcolm in the Middle, old reruns of Phil Silvers and the stray horror movie...

What would I like renewed interest coming off this film to achieve? Sci Fi shows back on BBC2, in an early evening weekday slot like back in the 90's. They should get the rights to the so far unseen Star Trek Remastered and perhaps Enterprise too. It would nice to see both without all the endless commericals, opposite the 6pm news and Channel 4's endlessly recycling of the same Simpsons episodes.
 
Last edited:
Though the film is doing great in the US, only 29.5 % of its entire box office gross comes from overseas... That's ridiculously low I think.... I know ST has a really, REALLY bad stigma to overcome, but the DVD sales are great overseas, so why is the film doing so badly. Someone once claimed that the international public tends to g for more intellectual films instead of the big hollywood action blockbusters, but that's not true. Wolverine has almost 48% overseas gross, and Fast & Furious even 54%!

I think it's a bad thing.... I know a sequel will come, but I guess Paramount will lose some faith in the franchise when it comes to international interest...

How did the movie do in english speaking counties compared to non english speaking countries.....Maybe non english speaking countries just don't go for dubbed movies in a big way.
 
Possibly because the movie wasn't as heavily promoted as it was in the US.

Yes, it seems like they just "gave up" promoting STXI in many European countries and focused heavily on the US and UK.

It's quite depressing to see that Angels & Demons is doing much better here in Europe (mostly because of Davinci Code and the European "flavour" of the movie, I think).
 
Why do you think Trek is doing terribly. The percentages are skewed US but look at boxofficemojo's page.

1) Most countries haven't reported
2) Some countries haven't opened
3) The US has frontloaded our movie performances recently... do international markets do the same where 80% of the movie's money is made in 3 weeks.
4) What is the "normal" ratio of domestic/foriegn earnings
 
Possibly because the movie wasn't as heavily promoted as it was in the US.

Yes, it seems like they just "gave up" promoting STXI in many European countries and focused heavily on the US and UK.

It's quite depressing to see that Angels & Demons is doing much better here in Europe (mostly because of Davinci Code and the European "flavour" of the movie, I think).

I think Europeans are simply into conspiracies and bible doom and gloom. Soo we're getting a film about that female Pope. Oh, and our German Hollywood export Roland Emmerich is doing another "end of the world" film. For like the fourth time. I suppose that will be a hit in Europe. We love it like that. Maybe Star Trek is too optimistic? :)
 
I think we're agreed that the word 'terribly' is a bit hysterical.

I know the big producers don't project DVD sales in their initial calculations but I predict Star Trek will sell millions in DVD.
 
I believe TNG did better in the UK, because of Patrick Stewart.

Star Trek is very American centric, especially TOS, the new film, VOY and DS9 partly.

I think it may be worth considering making a new series, featuring characters from the various nationalities where Trek suffers. Feature less of America in the Earth based episodes, and show some of the Starfleet Academies and buildings which are not based in San Fransisco.
 
As for Germany, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this film actually perform worse than freakin' Nemesis at the box office? I couldn't believe it when I heard this. I'm not sure, but I guess the reason for this is the lack of advertisement the movie got around here.

Oh, and I think it has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that Star Trek is American centric. Almost 100% of the movies in German theatres are from the US. So I think this argument is pretty moot.
 
Oh, this figure is in no way scientific. It's just a personal guess. And I did add almost. The point is, when I look at the movies currently playing in German cinemas it's hard to find ones that are not produced in the US. No-one can seriously dispute that. The 100% thing was just a way to get that point across. ;)
 
I think it may be worth considering making a new series, featuring characters from the various nationalities where Trek suffers. Feature less of America in the Earth based episodes, and show some of the Starfleet Academies and buildings which are not based in San Fransisco.

Not a bad idea, but I do think there is more at work here than the nationality of the characters involved. TOS was remarkable for its diversity, after all.

From the US we tend to see Trek as representing a time when humanity has overcome its prejudices and internal political tensions. But from a foreign persective, the "U.S.S." tends to suggest that this is a world where the US has absorbed other countries into itself. Since there is a sort of worldwide paranoia about American cultural dominance, I'm not sure that the Trek universe is perceived abroad as a clearly optimistic vision of the future as it is here in the US.

That said, current Trek is obviously doing quite well, so even if my speculation above is relevant, Trek is succeeding in spite of that mitigating factor.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top