What would you recommend for ST4 to top $500 million box office?

[RAMA]

As we all know by now, Beyond will do just fine, but it did not break out into the mega-blockbuster realm that Paramount wanted and we all expected for the 50th anniversary. I would set $500 million to $1 billion as that tier of success. So what should Paramount do?

Some ideas:

1) Start earlier..having a writer and production team as well as the main guest star in place is a beginning. Aim for 2018...which brings me to number 2..

2) Open it in May or June...a Memorial Day and 4th of July would have probably earned the movie an extra $30-35 million or so.

3) Have 2 or 3 "name" guest stars. Hemsworth and least one other for them to play against. I love Idris Elba, but apparently he was not as big a worldwide draw yet as Cumberbatch.

4) Market the movie with Hemsworth and Pine's faces all over the place.

5) If Pine and co are signed up for 2 films, then make it a two-parter that ends in the 5th film..a cliffhanger.

6) Go big...on a budget. $150 million sounds right, but they are going to have to go with more CGI/virtual backgrounds than JJ likes to make it epic but cheaper.

 

[BillJ]

Danger to Earth. Maybe time travel. Those things seem to be better at luring in the audience.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Avoiding the "secret" twist that hampers their marketing plan and prevents them from exploiting the star power of the A-list actors that they have recruited the past two films.

 

[BillJ]

Bring back Cumberbatch and warp back in time to the Eugenics Wars.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Borg.

Seriously. Just do it.

 

[Khan 2.0]

Bearing in mind the Hemsworth storyline that's already planned.

- May 2018 release

- Shatner (in a supporting role - like Nimoy in 2009)

- A lister like Tom Hanks/Cruise as some Starfleet Admiral/Captain (either a supporting role or just a cameo )

- Klingons as the villains

- decent first trailer

- post SW JJ directing

 

[Malaika]

for a start: stop trying to pander to the side of the trek fandom who will never like the reboot regardless; try to not alienate the fans of these movies who are here since 2009. Stop making tos a hindrance for the reboot. Get back to the first movie and try to understand what worked there.

 

[ItIsGreen]

• Give Scotty a moustache
• Remix the TMP uniforms
• Crazy Admiral-gone-bad
• Crossover with The Avengers
• KHAAAAAAAAN
• Bring back Shatner, kill him again
• Scotty knows this ship like the back of his hand
• NuTNG (cast that James McAvoy guy as Picard)

 

[seigezunt]

1. Don't listen to the True Fans-TM who will be "boycotting" anyway
2. Get Pegg to write it again
3. Don't skimp on the trailers. Promote!

 

[ISS Enterprise]

• Remix the TMP uniforms

Oh hell no..... for the Love of God leave those craptastic things in the dust bin of horrible ideas please.

Worst unis ever

 

[F. King Daniel]

Blow up Disney and Marvel Studios.

 

[Visitor1982]

Won't happen.

Star Trek just isn't popular enough.

It will always be a niche market.

In Europe, Star Trek is for nerds. It is not cool.

Paramount needs to accept this and some fans on this message board as well.

 

[Galileo7]

The Star Trek franchise has been around almost as long as the James Bond OO7 film franchise. The last Bond film Spectre (2015) box office was $880 million. If only a Star Trek film could deliver that box office.

 

[PixelMagic]

Won't happen.

Star Trek just isn't popular enough.

It will always be a niche market.

Sadly, this is the truth. Into Darkness showed that a movie MIGHT could get to $500 Mil, but it would have to be the perfect storm of circumstances. I love Star Wars alot, but at the same time I'm peeved at the general populace for not caring about Star Trek enough to at least make it as popular as Star Wars. Heh.

 

[BillJ]

Borg.

Seriously. Just do it.

Or this.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Sadly, this is the truth. Into Darkness showed that a movie MIGHT could get to $500 Mil, but it would have to be the perfect storm of circumstances. I love Star Wars alot, but at the same time I'm peeved at the general populace for not caring about Star Trek enough to at least make it as popular as Star Wars. Heh.

STID would have only needed a 9% increase to do it. And if it had matched ST09's domestic. It would have only missed by $4m.

A better year, better marketing, and a more universal/accessible film and it's totally possible.

 

[photon70]

I agree with the point that it needs to be in May.

Ideally, first weekend in May.

Make it an event film, the 'first' summer blockbuster of the year.

2 or 3 named guest stars.

If Hemsworth really will be in the 4th movie, that's great.

Other named starts like Angelina Jolie, Tom Hanks and Daniel Craig, just to name 3 movie stars that are Trek fans.

 

[M-Red]

Different release date -- either earlier in the summer or later in the calendar. Many people thought it was a huge mistake to release TFA in December, but it proved brilliant because of the lack of blockbuster competition. Why not later?

Earlier and smarter marketing -- start the marketing process earlier and build up to it. STB's marketing was very thin for a long time and then they launched a massive blitz in the last few weeks. Use CBS if possible the way Disney used ABC and ESPN for TFA. The relationship is obviously different, but TFA received tons of freebie advertising on Disney's other platforms. CBS isn't owned by Paramount obviously, but they should have a stake in promoting Star Trek. Use all the platforms.

Villain(s) and/or Problem -- not complex: make the baddies and/or situation interesting to the general audience. Klingons or the Borg are more easily marketed, and it could also be nice to have some destructive space phenomenon (looking at you, Doomsday Machine) that could captivate general movie-goers in a few seconds of a trailer.

Sex Appeal -- it doesn't have to be constant panty-shots, but it wouldn't hurt to give Kirk an attractive female interest. C'mon, you know it's true.


Other than that, just keep producing good scripts. Word of mouth helps, and each of the nuTrek films have been critical successes despite what some loud voices within the fanbase might have people believe.

 

[photon70]

And Paramount should really start looking seriously at having multiple production teams working on various Trek movies.

I'm not saying they should churn them out once a year, but once every 2 years is fine and you'll get better result if you have two production teams working simultaneously, rather than flogging one team to exhaustion.

 

[Jedi_Master]

I would enjoy seeing the next Trek film attempt to carve out its own niche in the calendar - say around Easter perhaps - instead of being lumped into the big blot of summer action films.