STAR TREK V DIRECTOR´S CUT

[Cicero]

TMP was never a flop. Not by a long shot. It made a boatload of money. In fact, until the Abramsverse films, it was the most financially successful of all the films when adjusted for inflation. TFF was the only one of the TOS cast films to lose money at the box office. It and Nemesis are the only certified bombs in the film series.

It wasn't, but much of the box office was existing demand that was lost by the movie's poor quality. Batman v. Superman and The Last Jedi had similar places in their own series.

(My mother was actually an example of this: having grown up watching TOS and TAS, she was so bored by The Motion Picture that she gave up on the franchise until my father, who had watched The Wrath of Khan, encouraged her to go see The Search for Spock—which is ultimately how I became a Star Trek fan.)

 

[Grant]

STTMP made 82 million in 1979 and TWOK made 78 Million in 1982 on a budget of less than a third.
STTMP made a ton of money but was a critical flop and a fan disappointment. Very, very few fans said, "wow, that was a great movie."
I saw it 7 times in theater and was convinced it was the last trek movie I'd ever see. TWOK saved trek -- exactly as the long held narrative states.

 

[TOMFAN]

TFF wasn't such a failure. It made $63M from a $33M budget and it made pretty good in Home Video sales. Ofc was a flop in comparison with the rest of the saga but it did decently as lots of people would watch it 100% after Star Trek IV.

It also came out the same summer as Batman, James Bond and Indiana Jones - that's some pretty strong competition it was up against!

 

[Jeyl]

It also came out the same summer as Batman, James Bond and Indiana Jones - that's some pretty strong competition it was up against!

It's not always about how much money a film makes that gives it a lasting legacy. Many films that wind up being failures at the box office would find critical reappraisal down the road and even wind up being more success than the films they went up against in theaters. Star Trek V has had none of that reappraisal and is still recognized for the failure that it is. When the film franchise needed a course correction, it got it in the form of VI which wisely chose to ignore V altogether.

 

[FormerLurker]

I just checked, and this is a necrothread.

 

[mb22]

The worst flop was Nemesis ($60 million budget, $67,336,470 worldwide box office).

 

[Dukhat]

I just checked, and this is a necrothread.

Dang it...usually I catch those

 

[Cryogenator]

What are the objections to continuing old threads?

I’m always interested when I see them.

 

[FormerLurker]

What are the objections to continuing old threads?

I’m always interested when I see them.

Continuing threads that have been dormant for a few weeks to a couple of months is okay, as long as the new stuff is relevant and informative, so others can contribute in reaction.

Posting in a thread that is a year old is usually out of bounds. Occasionally a Mod will allow it because of the same kind of relevance other, not so old threads can be updated with, but usually they are locked, and posters are encouraged to start new threads on the same subject.

 

[Dukhat]

What are the objections to continuing old threads?

Usually because the people who posted in them are either long gone or have forgotten about the topic. So replies by them are usually rare.

 

[CoveTom]

TFF wasn't such a failure. It made $63M from a $33M budget and it made pretty good in Home Video sales. Ofc was a flop in comparison with the rest of the saga but it did decently as lots of people would watch it 100% after Star Trek IV.

You never know what numbers to believe with Hollywood accounting, but in Shatner's Movie Memories book he reports that TFF made $55 million. And when he was interviewed on "Larry King Live" at the time of the film's release, he reported the budget as being $32 million.

Either way, it's clear that the film made more than its production budget back, and people did go to see it. However, if you consider the cut that the theaters take and the marketing costs and such, it probably did not turn a profit, at least in its original theatrical run. Now, because it is a Trek film, it has had a longevity to it in home media and streaming and such that other films with a similar lukewarm box office probably wouldn't have. But I'm pretty sure Paramount thinks of it as the classic Trek film that was the biggest flop.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Yes, this thread was necro’d. So, in the words of Yakko Warner, “good night, everybody!!” Thread closed.