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

[F. King Daniel]

My idea is to do a chase movie. Cheaper, as mostly on the ship. Exciting, with emphasis on suspense as well as action.
The Enterprise encounters an intriguing enemy in deep space. The following story is basically a cat and mouse game. We've seen a little bit of this in most of the previous movies (TWOK being the most well known), but making it the main story would be new, and there are all sort of ways they could maintain interest.
They could pass all sorts of strange and dangerous space phenomena; gain and then lose strategic advantage, set or fall into traps, go cloaked or in disguise (send false messages and decrypt enemy comms), then when they're at breaking point a final struggle for survival.

I really like this idea. You could even combine it with the Khan one to have them chasing him and his crew, who escaped and stole a Federation ship.

I imagine it a bit like a space-based Mad Max: Fury Road. Chasing Khan's ship (which of course would have to be the Reliant) through the territories of various Trek aliens.

 

[eyeresist]

SPOCK: If I may be so bold, Captain, I believe Khan is your "white whale".
KIRK : A fishing reference, Spock? I don't get it.
SPOCK: [rolls eyes]

 

[I am not Spock]

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.

Yeah. I have an interesting relationship with Star Wars. I like it, but at the same time I get quite frustrated by it. Because it gets the lion's share of the limelight and attention, even though Trek came first, and I feel Trek is so much more culturally relevant, and influential in every way imaginable. We might not even be on BBS's like this one, on our phones, tablets, and laptops, if it wasn't for a bunch of IT geeks sitting around watching Star Trek

 

[JamesRye]

"What would you recommend for ST4 to top $500 million box office?"
1. Get JJ Abrams back involved, his record speaks for itself.
2. Take a risk, we've had goodness knows how many stories where the bad guy wants revenge for ......reasons.
3. Make it relevant.
4. Get a decent 'big name' or upcoming star involved.
5. Get a decent screenwriter, preferably a big name SF author involved.
6. Science it up. I want less fantasy elements.
7. Realistic action please. I'm fed up of people clinging onto cliffs with their fingernails or hanging onto people with one arm. Let alone sliding down saucer sections or falling from great heights onto rocks.
8. Actually listen to the Star Trek coda:

Seek out new life-forms and new civilisations.
Explore strange new worlds
Boldly go where no one has gone before.

 

[Shalashaska]

I think they should borrow from the wealth of good stories and episodes this franchise has to offer.

At the same time, do something you can't do on the small screen.

2009 was a movie. Into Darkness, for all its flaws, was a movie. Beyond, as much as I liked it, could've been done on the small screen if not for the lack of money.

I don't have a distinct idea or premise that I think would work, but I think something along the lines of "the Enterprise crew has to go back in time to stop the Borg Queen from destroying the whales and getting in a fist fight with Khan and his half-Klingon brother, Khang" would bring in the money

 

[RAMA]

2009 was a movie. Into Darkness, for all its flaws, was a movie. Beyond, as much as I liked it, could've been done on the small screen if not for the lack of money.

Um..you just contradicted yourself there..on TV if not for the lack of money?? Well it cost at least $150 million(if you subtract the Orci script money), so NO it didn't look, feel, OR cost what a TV show would, so it is very much a movie. With some of the best ST movie or Tv world building we've ever seen and terrific FX and cinematography.

 

[ItIsGreen]

I think they should borrow from the wealth of good stories and episodes this franchise has to offer.

At the same time, do something you can't do on the small screen.

The Motion Picture couldn't have been done on TV in 1979. The story however, was very similar to the TOS episode "The Changeling".

Insurrection had a very similar premise to the TNG episode "Journey's End".

Into Darkness borrowed shamelessly from The Wrath of Khan.

Science fiction is about imagination, why redo what's been done before?

 

[eyeresist]

Um..you just contradicted yourself there..on TV if not for the lack of money?? Well it cost at least $150 million(if you subtract the Orci script money), so NO it didn't look, feel, OR cost what a TV show would, so it is very much a movie. With some of the best ST movie or Tv world building we've ever seen and terrific FX and cinematography.

He's talking about the story, not the budget.

 

[CorporalClegg]

The story doesn't work without the budget.


*The story may have been episodic and enclosed, but it still maintained the big screen feel. And things like the swarm ships and the crash are essential to the theme.

Compare that to the TNG films, for example. There was nothing about the bigger budgets that enhanced the story in any way. And even the crash in GEN wasn't as meaningful or significant as the one in STB. It was it there for the sake of it.

 

[psCargile]

Didn't read all three pages yet, but have Luc Besson write and direct, with Jason Stathom star.

 

[Roald]

I've always wanted to see an alien bug infestation film, like huge alien spiders... About the Enterprise encountering a planet run over by these huge insects, a la Starship Troopers... I think this as a very basic premise would really work, as crazy as it sounds....

 

[Starscream2112]

Needs much better marketing. Paramount has already starting the marketing for Transformer 5 months ago.

 

[ISS Enterprise]

I've always wanted to see an alien bug infestation film, like huge alien spiders... About the Enterprise encountering a planet run over by these huge insects, a la Starship Troopers... I think this as a very basic premise would really work, as crazy as it sounds....

We r talking about Star Trek not a Goosebumps movie lol

No thanks honestly. I agree w earlier post of getting currect sci fi writers involved. They helped to create some of the best tos stories.

Have ab actual plot w action to support it vs. Michael Bay route. Lol

 

[Dukhat]

It's really very simple. Without good advertising and marketing to the correct demographic, your product or service won't sell as well.

The nuTrek films, while excellent, are like any franchise suffering from diminishing returns. But it wouldn't have been as bad if Paramount would have pushed for better marketing. The last two films have suffered for that because they haven't learned from the SW films. All kinds of marketing, advertising, toys, animated series tie ins...heck, even another film that's not part of the overall trilogy!

 

[Shalashaska]

Um..you just contradicted yourself there..on TV if not for the lack of money?? Well it cost at least $150 million(if you subtract the Orci script money), so NO it didn't look, feel, OR cost what a TV show would, so it is very much a movie. With some of the best ST movie or Tv world building we've ever seen and terrific FX and cinematography.

I'm talking about the story.

The original films couldn't have been done on the small screen with the exception of The Final Frontier. They were a natural evolution of the show with Kirk as Admiral afraid of growing old and no longer going on adventures, rather sending others on them. The new films couldn't have been done on the small screen. The first film is about Kirk's evolution from renegade child, to aggressive young man to captain of the Enterprise. Can't do that on the small screen. Into Darkness was pretty much the same thing but with the addition of more explosions, more screaming and loud noises, and mostly chasing a madman all over the Alpha Quadrant and blowing shit up.

Beyond was about being stranded on a planet and the crew coming together to get back into space. How many times have we seen that on the shows? Could it have been done on the small screen? Yes.

 

[STMSTS]

Ultimately, the studio needs to decide who these films are for. The first film was designed and marketed for crossover appeal - beyond fans ( who are likely to show up regardless) it appealed to a new/younger audience, was a viable 'date' movie and it was an event - recasting a classic iconic franchise. Into Darkness lost some of those elements and suffered for it domestically. Beyond was built and sold to and for adult action movie goers and fans of Star Trek, limiting its appeal (part of several factors working against it this summer). Making Star Trek more 'date' friendly again wouldn't hurt, nor would making it more family friendly and having it welcoming to multiple generations.

You have a huge part of the fan base that entered fandom as kids with the modern series and now have kids of their own. This goes back to something another poster said in another topic about there being no Lego sets. That's a huge point - there's no kid friendly merchandise to help cultivate new fans or generate interest. The merchandise/toys today caters to long time fans - it's focused on the past series, it's expensive and not found in big box retail stores. Look at the promotional partners over the course of the three films - the first one we had Playmates toys everywhere (they were awful which led to poor sales and I think that's a bit of factor in the decling box office), ID had Hasbro's Lego knockoffs (also poor sellers) and this film had Quicken Loans and Enterprise Rent A Car - not particularly kid friendly. Quality, affordable, kid friendly toys would be a step in the right direction.

 

[Cyrus]

My recommendations:
- A story idea that appeals to mainstream audiences (e.g. like TVH).
- More comedy (again like TVH).
- No more "some vengeful bad guy trying to destroy enterprise" story (TVH again?)
sorry about too many references to TVH, but that was the original ST4 after all
- Get Abrams to direct again. He is a more coherent story teller than Lin.

 

[Rahul]

Ultimately, the studio needs to decide who these films are for.

I think you might be onto something here. Considering how much JJ. Abrams tried to distance himself from Trekkies during his press tour for Trek09 and instead reference Star Wars as a source of Inspiration, all of the nuTrek movies are chock-full of fan-wank and overly dependent on previous Trek knowledge.

They aren't necessarily bad movies, if a bit bland. But the target audience the filmmakers made the movies for weren't the the target demographic of the marketing campaign.

 

[eyeresist]

- A story idea that appeals to mainstream audiences (e.g. like TVH).

Iconic sci-fi characters bumbling about on present-day Earth is an idea that can only really be done once.

 

[captainkirk]

2009 was a movie. Into Darkness, for all its flaws, was a movie. Beyond, as much as I liked it, could've been done on the small screen if not for the lack of money.

That was my thought as well. The first two movies established the universe and developed the characters. Other than replacing the Enterprise Beyond didn't contribute much to the ongoing story.