Star Trek box office may come up short

[tidemobile]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUKTRE54A06A20090511

Overseas the film will be lucky to gross $125 million at best as foreign market PR campaigns failed to spike interest as it did in North America. Star Trek could gross upwards of $220 million in North America mainly due to word of mouth, just short of the $230 million budget (movie and advertising combined). In any event, the recent garbage known as Enterprise, Nemesis and Insurrection contributed to the lower numbers, especially overseas as audiences will need time to discover the newest film by word of mouth (such as Batman Begins and Casino Royale which faced nearly identical problems as the Trek franchise has endured)

However expect dvd rentals and sales to contribute upwards of over $180 million+ (TDK had over $230 million http://www.the-numbers.com/dvd/charts/annual/2008.php ) to the total take for Trek 11, and toys to add hundreds more, thus allowing Trek 11 to reinvigorate the franchise to profitability in the long run. The true gamble will be Trek 12 which must capitalize upon Trek 11's popularity and hopefully will have as large or larger production as Trek 11. Overall total box office gross will be around $275 - $300 million. Add rentals and sales of DVD's and online rentals with toys to the box office grosses, Star Trek 11 should gross easily over $600 million. Its in the sequel where the future will lay all its eggs in that basket.

 

[TheMadCloner]

I'm not worried. There's huge potential for more success in the future, and I think Paramount knows that and is willing to finance a sequel to test that theory.

This movie will do what it needed to do.

The challenge is to keep up the momentum.

 

[Hyperspace05]

Bullcrap story... I guess they failed to look at history. Trek movies have usually internationally only grossed 1/3rd or less of their total worldwide gross..

So $125 international gross would be friggin' fantastic for Paramount. It would mean roughly the same excitement and advertising success as the domestic increase since previous films.

 

[Overbound]

I tend to think that Star Trek is going to catch on fire and gross at least 300 Million. The word of mouth seems to be working and it has grossed a cool 72 mil this weekend alone.

 

[Amaris]

If it grosses $300 million, to say I'd be thrilled would be an understatement!


J.

 

[Overgeeked]

It's Sunday night, nearly midnight, and Star Trek is still in the top ten trending on Twitter. The word-of-mouth on this one has legs.

 

[Kaziarl]

Bullcrap story... I guess they failed to look at history. Trek movies have usually internationally only grossed 1/3rd or less of their total worldwide gross..

So $125 international gross would be friggin' fantastic for Paramount. It would mean roughly the same excitement and advertising success as the domestic increase since previous films.

History may say that, but current reality says that international is doing roughly 50% of domestic... soo.... yeah, for the moment at least they are doing good.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Lack of media PR or not...if this film is a hit in the U.S. (which it appears to be), people overseas will hear about it.

I'm not worried in the slightest. There is just not much to dislike about this movie, unless you are looking to hate it, going in. Which is not what the average movie-goer does.

That particular distinction is reserved strictly for existing Star Trek Fans.

 

[donners22]

Lack of media PR or not...if this film is a hit in the U.S. (which it appears to be), people overseas will hear about it.

I'm not worried in the slightest. There is just not much to dislike about this movie, unless you are looking to hate it, going in. Which is not what the average movie-goer does.

That particular distinction is reserved strictly for existing Star Trek Fans.

http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s2547372.htm

Think again, and look at some of those user comments. There are some people who will turn away from a film because it appeals at the US box office.


Still, I'm not sure that citing Star Trek's previous history at the box office will offer much of an indication of how this one will do. If the whole point is that this film is aimed at opening up a new market of fans, then it may do better than expected in places that are not traditional Trek strongholds.

 

[Aike]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUKTRE54A06A20090511

Overseas the film will be lucky to gross $125 million at best as foreign market PR campaigns failed to spike interest as it did in North America. Star Trek could gross upwards of $220 million in North America mainly due to word of mouth, just short of the $230 million budget (movie and advertising combined). In any event, the recent garbage known as Enterprise, Nemesis and Insurrection contributed to the lower numbers, especially overseas as audiences will need time to discover the newest film by word of mouth (such as Batman Begins and Casino Royale which faced nearly identical problems as the Trek franchise has endured)

$230 million budget? I thought the movie cost less than $100 million to make and the ad budget was $25-50 million.

 

[porthos4captain]

I think the box office will be fine. Australia has already notched up $4,686,164 AUS ($3,589,082 US) at the box office in the first 4 days. INS topped out at $4.5 million and NEM with barely over $3 million AUS. Naturally that's not counting inflation, but we're ahead already. It's pretty clear that this film will perform well. It might not make a massive amount of cash, but in terms of Star Trek it will definitely be the most successful in terms of overall worldwide sucess. It'll take a big hit over the next few weeks which will hurt the total box office, but it's done pretty well.

 

[Devon]

http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s2547372.htm

Some of those people in those comments section seem, umm, not so smart.

$230 million budget? I thought the movie cost less than $100 million to make and the ad budget was $25-50 million.

What??? Where did you ever that? The one huge thing about this film was its budget. It costs around $130-$150 Million, with another substantial amount in Advertising/Marketing.

 

[Thrawn]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUKTRE54A06A20090511

Overseas the film will be lucky to gross $125 million at best as foreign market PR campaigns failed to spike interest as it did in North America. Star Trek could gross upwards of $220 million in North America mainly due to word of mouth, just short of the $230 million budget (movie and advertising combined). In any event, the recent garbage known as Enterprise, Nemesis and Insurrection contributed to the lower numbers, especially overseas as audiences will need time to discover the newest film by word of mouth (such as Batman Begins and Casino Royale which faced nearly identical problems as the Trek franchise has endured)

$230 million budget? I thought the movie cost less than $100 million to make and the ad budget was $25-50 million.

Film budget was $140 million according to boxofficemojo, and I've seen estimates of advertising running from yours all the way up to $100 million.

 

[IndyJones]

http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s2547372.htm

That was an interesting read. A lot of America hate there.

As if Australian cinema is the be all end all of intellect and high brow entertainment. I've seen The Man Who Sued God, so I know Australians make movies that are every bit as bad as American films.

 

[wekkuli]

Unfortunately, the movie has only got average (***) reviews (at least in my country here in Europe). Then again, Wolverine has done just as bad at the box office.

To be honest, the promo shots used in many reviews may have been too "cheesy" for the mainstream audience who don't know Trek. I'm talking about the pics with the serious looking crew on the bridge - they just don't do the justice for the movie which is a lot fun.

 

[Michael Chris]

Where do you get "may come up short" from that article?

 

[erebus]

i'm definently going to buy the dvd and the novelisation and the music cd...

yes, better start saving up but i think star trek 11 is a relative hit and we can look forwards to a sequel. But the buzz from this film is going to last me a long time. I'm so happy!

 

[Roshi]

I've seen packed screenings in highly-disdainful-toward-trek France. Believe me, the movie will do just fine.

 

[Squiggy]

You mean it won't have the biggest opening weekend in history?!?!

IT'S DOOMED! JJ HAS KILLED STAR TREK!!!!

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The OP is positing a 345 million dollar worldwide take for this movie, which is brilliant. Fans of the film have nothing to worry about if this turns out to be the case, and the folks at Paramount will be thrilled.