Thoughts on box office results

[Noname Given]

Therin of Andor said:

Noname Given said:
remember in 1979, Star Wars sequels were doing well

Huh? In December 1979, when TMP premiered, "The Empire Strikes Back" was still in post-production.

Yes, I know there wasn't the internet, but as someone alive and involved during that time, there was A LOT of anticipation and reports on the progress of ESB.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I was also "alive and involved", thank you, but you still can't say "in 1979, Star Wars sequels were doing well" and that's why people were excited about a possible ST film series, because there was only one "Star Wars" sequel - but it was neither released nor finished, so definitely no evidence it was "doing well".

As for TMP, the secondary cast were fully expecting to start doing a rejigged "Phase II" TV series in the 80s if TMP succeeded, not more motion pictures.

 

[Flake]

<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>Name Dom. Gross Tkt. Price Adm. Adj. 2007

TMP $82,258,456 $2.51 32,772,293 $215,641,689
TWOK $78,912,963 $2.94 26,841,144 $176,614,727
TSFS $76,471,046 $3.36 22,759,240 $149,755,798
TVH $109,713,132 $3.71 29,572,273 $194,585,555
TFF $52,210,049 $3.97 13,151,146 $86,534,540
TUC $74,888,996 $4.21 17,788,360 $117,047,409
GEN $75,671,125 $4.18 18,103,140 $119,118,661
FC $92,027,888 $4.42 20,820,789 $137,000,793
INS $70,187,658 $4.69 14,965,386 $98,472,237
NEM $43,254,409 $5.81 7,444,821 $48,986,921 </pre><hr />

I just whipped this up using Excel and the Box office mojo ticket price adjuster.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

So the second-highest grossing movie was TVH? Not surprising, as that was a fun movie!

 

[Stardate]

Total Worldwide Grosses Adjusted For 2005 Ticket Price Inflation. Matinees and dollar theaters are figured into the estimates.
-----Movie---------------------USA Gross -------Intern.Gross ---------------Worldwide Gross
1. Star Trek: TMP (1979)--------$278,884,462----$156,872,510-------------------$435,756,972
2. Star Trek IV: TVH (1986)-----$184,826,705----$62,816,489--------------------$247,643,194
3. Star Trek II: TWOK (1982)----$167,757,149-----$49,248,076-------------------$217,005,225
4. Star Trek: FC (1996)---------$130,129,932------ $76,357,466----------------$206,487,398
5. Star Trek: GEN (1994)--------$113,144,625-----$63,397,129-------------------$176,541,754
6. Star Trek III: TSFS (1984)----$142,245,249----- $28,315,011------------------$170,560,260
7. Star Trek: INS (1998)--------$93,533,659------- $56,503,198-----------------$150,036,857
8. Star Trek VI: TUC (1991)-----$111,177,251------ $32,660,333-----------------$143,837,584
9. Star Trek V: TFF (1989)------$82,194,661------ $29,927,528------------------$112,122,189
10. Star Trek: NEM (2002)------$46,530,130------ $25,880,397-------------------$72,410,527



Ticket price adjustment data is from Market Data Research from the Motion Picture Association Of America.

 

[Stardate]

Trek Film Box Office Ranking Per Year Of Release

This is based on what rank the Trek movie came in that particular year.
For example, Star Trek: TMP came in 2nd place compared to all of the movies that were released in 1979 worldwide.

The films have been ranked based on worldwide gross and domestic gross.
This is a pretty good method of showing the respective Trek film's popularity within a given year.
--Film------USA Ranking--Worldwide Ranking
1. Star Trek: TMP (1979) 3rd 2nd
2. Star Trek IV: TVH (1986) 5th 6th
3. Star Trek II: TWOK (1982) 5th 6th
4. Star Trek III: TSFS (1984) 8th 7th
5. Star Trek VI: TUC (1991) 15th 13th
6. Star Trek: GEN (1994) 15th 19th
7. Star Trek: FC (1996) 17th 21st
8. Star Trek V: TFF (1989) 24th 27th
9. Star Trek: INS (1998) 27th 32nd
10. Star Trek: NEM (2002) 54th 73rd

 

[RAMA]

Eddie Roth said:
I recently used an inflation calculator on the box office numbers of the ST movies, just to see how they measure up in relation to each other (we all know who inflation distorts the numbers.) And I came upon some interesting things there. So I'll share:

Star Trek: The Motion Picture $245.587.696 BO
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan $170.921.637 BO
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock $149.235.666 BO
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home $198.148.207 BO
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier $85.802.702 BO
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country $111.419.955 BO
Star Trek: Generations $101.843.608 BO
Star Trek: First Contact $117.774.435 BO
Star Trek: Insurrection $85.750.004 BO
Star Trek: Nemesis $48.208.695 BO

All that's adjusted for inflation. Now it's interesting that box office grosses dropped steeply between TVH and TFF and (while posting solid numbers when compared with the films budgets) never again reached the heights that TMP, TWOK, TSFS and TVH climbed financially. And what happened between TVH and TFF? TNG premiered on television. So is it possible that a large number of potential moviegoers just stayed home because they thought "Why would I pay to see Star Trek if it's on TV for free?"

Also, when INS made only a very small profit in 1998 ($85m with a $71m budget), it was the second (though considerably less-well-received) ST film that opened when TWO ST series were on the air - that also attracted a considerably smaller audience than TNG had in its day.

Finally, NEM bombed completely (and even posted a loss for Paramount) when the equally unsuccesful ENT was on TV. So:

- Is a Star Trek film less appealing to a mass audience when a Star Trek series (albeit with a different cast) is currently in TV?
- Can we see a connection here between the success of the film in question and the ST TV series on the air at the time?
- How much does repeat viewing by hardcore fans figure into those numbers? Did e.g. people see TVH two or three times because they loved it and were then satisfied with seeing TFF only once because they didn't like it?

I wonder what these factors mean for how well Star Trek (2008) does at the box office....

I'd like to point out that I posted some total grosses for Nemesis a long time ago, that demonstrated it generated at least $140 million from all sources not including merchandising. It WAS a box office bomb, but nevertheless, a successful movie for Paramount overall. ST always was and still is a moneymaker for them.

RAMA

 

[Eddie Roth]

^^ What are "all sources"?

 

[cardinal biggles]

DVD sales, TV rights, that sort of crap. Yes, given ALL those factors taken in together, ANY movie can be a financial success. It's even easier if you cook the books and use lots of tax loopholes like good ol' Dr. Uwe Boll to cover up your losses.

What it doesn't do is remove the original stink of failure, nor does it take a shitty movie and suddenly make it good.