Except the box office is down for the first time in 7 years, not unlike some of the other countries that generate higher box office totals.
RAMA
The Domestic Box Office run is ending, International is kicking in.
- Thread starter KGator
- Start date
- Status
RAMA
Slightly down from 2015 but 2015 was still 150% over 2013.
Just to be clear, I was hoping that Latin America would provide a boost and this movie would appeal to the Chinese. Well, forget it. This franchise is dead overseas. It has underperformed in about 90% of the countries it has been released in (not least of all in the US). It will hit the lower end of my predicted range which is sad really.
Probably the only country where it showed improvement is South Korea. And this is a country where Mission Impossible made around $40m, Mad Max made nearly $30m, The Martian made $34m, Interstellar made almost $75m, Edge of Tomorrow made $38m, Gravity made almost $30m. They love Sci-Fi and action movies and STB will make what . . . around $10 million? Yeah, that's up from the pathetic STID number but folks . . . this franchise is just not catching on. Any hope of expanding the brand overseas essentially died when Disney started making Star Wars movies again.
I expect Japan (the last release) to follow the same bleak path as most other countries. The drop has been so consistent worldwide that I do not know if it is worth putting together another movie. And when you consider that as bad as Star Trek did internationally the WORST fall in any country was the US . . . the home of the brand . . . . yeah, I don't know what to say. Where is the potential for future growth? Where are the bright spots??? Maybe this franchise simply needs to be on TV. Perhaps that's what is was made for and films are just not a good fit anymore.
Probably the only country where it showed improvement is South Korea. And this is a country where Mission Impossible made around $40m, Mad Max made nearly $30m, The Martian made $34m, Interstellar made almost $75m, Edge of Tomorrow made $38m, Gravity made almost $30m. They love Sci-Fi and action movies and STB will make what . . . around $10 million? Yeah, that's up from the pathetic STID number but folks . . . this franchise is just not catching on. Any hope of expanding the brand overseas essentially died when Disney started making Star Wars movies again.
I expect Japan (the last release) to follow the same bleak path as most other countries. The drop has been so consistent worldwide that I do not know if it is worth putting together another movie. And when you consider that as bad as Star Trek did internationally the WORST fall in any country was the US . . . the home of the brand . . . . yeah, I don't know what to say. Where is the potential for future growth? Where are the bright spots??? Maybe this franchise simply needs to be on TV. Perhaps that's what is was made for and films are just not a good fit anymore.
Introducing some additional Asian stars might help... as well as expanding Sulu's role.
That's a damn shame. I really wanted a sequel. After Into Darkness, I didn't care if there was a sequel or not. But Beyond renewed my faith in the franchise. It would have been nice to have one more story to wrap up everything nicely.
Did something get announced that precludes a sequel?
In the end, it still is Paramounts highest grossing film of 2016, and probably will remain so for the remainder of the year... Sure it wasn't a major hit, but it wasn't a disaster either.... That's why I love your posts Rama, they tend to accentuate the positives.. And there certainly are positives..! I do agree that the film SHOULD have done better, but on the other hand: Trek has always been a more select, personal love, and in many ways I am happy it is not the huge mainstream thing Star Wars has become... Whatever the future brings, we at least got three huge big budget films, something I was always waiting for in Trek... But if we get smaller films from now on, I will not be dissapointed...
Small box office update, and this will probably be the last week I'll keep track till Japan. China does a slower $3.1 million Mon/Tues (estimated) and the Foreign Mojo update brings the total up to:$319,687,609. The grand total now is $322,787,609. The US will probably only do $100,000 for Monday so it's barely even a factor now.
A sequel is a given at this point.
The Wall Street Journal says 9 years.
http://www.wsj.com/video/chinas-sum...low/46D90758-7CFF-41CE-99C5-EA31FD954607.html
RAMA
Last edited:
I would very much hope so. I just don't share the optimism I'm afraid. I hope you're right.
Why all the pessimism? Nemesis was made after Insurrection underwhelmed at the box office, and Star Trek was rebooted as a big budget franchise 7 years after Nemesis utterly bombed at the box office. Paramount and Skydance need to learn a few lessons from the financial performance of Star Trek Beyond, chief amongst which is to keep their financial investment in line with the likely box office receipts, not cancel the franchise altogether.
It is saying that this is the first time in 9 years that the Chinese Box Office has not GROWN.
In 2015 the Chinese box office was 6.8 Billion, in 2013 (when STID was released) the Chinese Box office was 3.6 Billion. Oh boy, a 5% drop so far this year . . . . so what? That would have nothing to do with what I was alluding to. 7 of the top 10 biggest Hollywood releases in China's history have occured in the past 18 months (and 8 of the top 11). If Star Trek was ever going to gain a foothold in China this would have been the year. Instead it's not even going to make the top 20 Hollywood films in 2016! It is going to end up in the "London has Fallen" to "Ice Age 5" range of releases.
I don't care how much sunshine a person pumps . . . this is ending up about as horrific as it could. And we don't even know if Paramount is keeping the full share of the Chinese take since we don't know the details of their agreement with Huahua. With everything it had going for it, $80 million should have been the floor for STB. Hell, Independence Day did $75 million in China despite the fact of going up against Now You See Me 2 on its release weekend and TMNT 2 the next weekend. ID2 was never even number one at the box office and will make 20% more. It's not in the Chinese "Hollywood movie" Top 10 either.
So think about that for a minute. Jason Bourne and Ice Age 5 were released together . . . on a Tuesday even with tougher local competition and BOTH will finish higher than STB. Okay, just saying . . . spin that into a positive for me. I need to hear how this was actually a good thing for the franchise.
Yes. I believe that Star Trek 4 can be done more effectively and creativity with lower budget. Time travel, exploration of new worlds, exotic aliens, whatever it is. This is Star Trek.
How about discovering an alien world like Earth 20th century?
Something based on Chicago Mobs of the 20s?
Surely as Trek 2 had Khan, Trek 3 had them blowing up the Enterprise, Trek 4 must mean a trip back to contemporary times where we get some fish out of humour lessons and perhaps a moral tale about environmentalism?
Surely as Trek 2 had Khan, Trek 3 had them blowing up the Enterprise, Trek 4 must mean a trip back to contemporary times where we get some fish out of humour lessons and perhaps a moral tale about environmentalism?
Well, Climate change is all the rage these days, so you could do that.
Insurrection made back twice its production budget and was considered a disappointment. Paramount waited 4 years instead of the usual 2 to make Nemesis.
...and the first Trek film to fail to earn back its budget was Nemesis, and it buried the movie franchise for an unprecedented seven years.
So I think there's good reason for pessimism. Which is a huge shame; Beyond was my favorite of the Kelvin movies.
Exactly. Not pessimism. A realistic appraisal of the situation. Paramount wants Trek earning Marvel/Guardians of the Galaxy money. It's clear now that just isn't going to happen. The general public doesn't give a rat's ass about Star Trek like they did in the 90s.
Paramount might look to do a sequel because Trek is one of the only properties they have, but if you have a property that is well known, but still doesn't make money, so what? Brand recognition that doesn't bring in money is worthless.
Paramount might look to do a sequel because Trek is one of the only properties they have, but if you have a property that is well known, but still doesn't make money, so what? Brand recognition that doesn't bring in money is worthless.
Even then it wasn't bringing in the big dollars at cinemas. Adjusted for inflation, none of the '90s films were in the realm of TMP or TVH, let alone Marvel/Guardians of the Galaxy levels.
Trek has a ceiling, and the last couple of films pretty much hit it.
Either the next one has a lower budget, or it isn't made at all.
Again, why? STB is under performing, yes; but the studio is aware of the factors that may have caused this; and overall the audiences and critics that have seen it have generally liked it - and it's nowhere NEAR the box office bomb that was ST:Nemesis. Plus it's one of Paramount's better grossing films this year.
I do think we'll see ST XIV (aka JJ Trek 4) in the standard 2-3 years. After that who knows.
It's been released during the first down period in China in 9 YEARS! Beyond has been released in a down year here and in China! Both independent of each other, so with good reviews and good word of mouth, the movie itself is not the cause of it's lower box office.
The other thing that would give you a clue about the down period in China is that both Bourne and Ice Age were expected to make over $100 million and are winding up about where Beyond will be! The weekend that Beyond premiered it made more than Bourne(30% more), but the week overall was down from any other week at the Chinese box office. It's still a slow period and getting slower..in fact Beyond's second week was the lowest of the year in China..like the US, students go back to school and so on.
If I compared the year in China to American football it''s like a hot team that won it's first 10 games, then you went to see them on the 14th game, when they were in the midst of 6 games losing streak to close the year...Well that's when ST opened up.
Who expected Beyond to be in the top 10? I never said it. I don't base success on that, especially for a niche franchise like Trek. Not sure who told you they expected such a thing.
It's not about sunshine,, you panic about it, but it's most likely broken even already and even if it hasn't it's still made $322 million--and likely $340 million plus(almost every penny it will make in secondary income will be profit). 3rd highest gross in Trek history. We already know it will make a large amount of secondary revenue like almost every $100+ blockbuster (per the article and graph I posted) and within a period of 2 years. There is no likelihood it won't make a profit. Therefore, there's no reason for you to say the sky is falling.
When an article online posts it lost money, they only mean based on the $185 number and then only by the box office totals. As I've pointed out neither the cost nor the assumptions are likely to be accurate. They generally write the headlines as click bait. Unfortunately lots of people fall for it.
RAMA
The other thing that would give you a clue about the down period in China is that both Bourne and Ice Age were expected to make over $100 million and are winding up about where Beyond will be! The weekend that Beyond premiered it made more than Bourne(30% more), but the week overall was down from any other week at the Chinese box office. It's still a slow period and getting slower..in fact Beyond's second week was the lowest of the year in China..like the US, students go back to school and so on.
If I compared the year in China to American football it''s like a hot team that won it's first 10 games, then you went to see them on the 14th game, when they were in the midst of 6 games losing streak to close the year...Well that's when ST opened up.
Who expected Beyond to be in the top 10? I never said it. I don't base success on that, especially for a niche franchise like Trek. Not sure who told you they expected such a thing.
It's not about sunshine,, you panic about it, but it's most likely broken even already and even if it hasn't it's still made $322 million--and likely $340 million plus(almost every penny it will make in secondary income will be profit). 3rd highest gross in Trek history. We already know it will make a large amount of secondary revenue like almost every $100+ blockbuster (per the article and graph I posted) and within a period of 2 years. There is no likelihood it won't make a profit. Therefore, there's no reason for you to say the sky is falling.
When an article online posts it lost money, they only mean based on the $185 number and then only by the box office totals. As I've pointed out neither the cost nor the assumptions are likely to be accurate. They generally write the headlines as click bait. Unfortunately lots of people fall for it.
RAMA
- Status
