Intelligent people "concede" it was a successful movie because it attracted an large audience.
Yes, they can do that. Successful and good don't mean the same thing.
They also don't refer to as people as "sheep" because they liked a movie.
He made reference to all the "new" fans that jumped on board just for this movie, which is all well and good for the success of the franchise. But, if certain individuals jumped on board the Star Trek train simply for this movie, they were doing it to follow a trend. So, by an urban dictionaries' definition that is how I define them.
sheep
1. A group of people who lack the capacity for careful consideration, imagination, or individual thought, who thusly go with group and allow god awful trends and events to unfold and make us all miserable.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sheep