Star Trek Rocks The Box Office
May 11, 2009 by Vic HoltremanThe new Star Trek movie proves it’s not just for geeks and nerds.
Sure, it’s not the biggest box office opening weekend ever, but for a Star Trek film opening in the second weekend in May, with a blockbuster a week ahead of it (Wolverine), it passed the test with flying colors.
What test? How about “Will people turn out in droves for a Star Trek movie despite the “geek” stereotype?”
Inflation adjusted (to make it more fair for previous films) J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek blew away the opening weekend numbers of every Trek film that came before. In the final analysis, it earned $75.2 million from Friday through Sunday, with an additional $4 million on the late Thursday opening – bringing its total to $79.2 million.
For a Star Trek movie.
Sweet!
Here are the opening weekend numbers of all Trek films for comparison:
| Movie | Adj Opening Wkend |
| Star Trek: The Motion Picture | $34MM |
| Star Trek II | $35MM |
| Star Trek III: The Search for Spock | $36MM |
| Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home | $33MM |
| Star Trek V: The Final Frontier | $31MM |
| Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country | $31MM |
| Star Trek Generations | $40MM |
| Star Trek First Contact | $50MM |
| Star Trek Insurrection | $34MM |
| Star Trek Nemesis | $23MM |
| Star Trek | $73MM |
As you can see the only previous film that came even remotely close was Star Trek: First Contact, the first fully Next Generation film (and the last good Star Trek film). After that it got ugly with fan support dwindling… and of course if you listen to the folks behind those movies it wasn’t because the movies were getting worse, it was the fans fault for not showing up to “support” the films.
Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt, folks.
Oh, and lest you look at the earlier films and snicker, keep in mind that the earlier films didn’t open on as many screens so just couldn’t get higher than a certain point on that first weekend – they were actually remarkably steady in their first weekend numbers.
In any case, the latest Star Trek film looks like it’s going to re-ignite the franchise in a big way. Personally, although I’m an old fart classic Trek fan, I’m generally happy with the new film and am just super-excited that we’ll be getting more of them.
And it’s not even close to being done, yet. While Wolverine dropped a precipitous 69% in its second weekend (a worse drop than the oft-slammed X-Men 3), I’m betting that Star Trek will have “legs.” I think the opening weekend box office would have been even bigger were it not for the stigma attached to being someone who watches Star Trek (sorry folks, it’s true). However those brave souls who risked being labeled nerds were treated to a movie that they’re now recommending to all their friends who weren’t quite so brave.
Not only is it the type of film that you can see more than once and still be entertained, it’s going to have the kind of word of mouth that will bouy it on its second weekend and beyond (our onsite poll shows 90% of people who saw it rate it at least 4 out of 5 stars). Plus of course we have the “hot guy” factor with Chris Pine as the new Kirk – sure to draw in the women-folk.
I’m betting we see little more than a 50% drop next weekend, and I’ll be adding my ticket purchase to that total.
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Well you obviously look at Shatner with a different perspective. You prob wouldn’t like my dvd collection, pity,,,
I will say this, he has a bigger fanbase then you Daniel.
He must be doing something right/wrong ?
I’m not famous so I don’t have a fanbase. To be fair Kevin Federline, The Jonas Brothers and Miley Sirus have a fan base doesn’t make them talented.
As a side note anyone else getting this weird Gravatar thing next to their names when they leave a comment? I see it next to everyones name.
LOL,,,
Your lucky Vic’s a nice guy Daniel. Some sites would banish you to the neither regions after dissin the Shat like that.
Wait til Lord Garth gets wind of your comments!
I just ignore Daniel’s postings now because it’s obvious he just posts stuff contrary to the majority opinion to get a rise out of everyone here.
@790…
I’m a BIG fan of the Trek novels, and there was a REALLY great DS9 novel called Fallen Heroes. Basically, an alien invasion force kills off the population of DS9 while Quark and Odo are suspended in time. They then have to figure out what happened and how to keep it from happening. One of the best Trek writers, Dafydd ab Hugh, wrote it.
I always respected the people behind TOS.
They created pretty good TV with a lot less then TNG had to work with.
DidntTNG have weekly budgets pretty close to 1 million a week?
whatever it was ,the TOS budget was a LOT smaller.
790, so in your story would the lead character have been Janeway leading the fight against Borg? I really like the idea of your story and I think it would be awesome if you novelized it. Not sure it would fit in the current Trek storylines, though.
@Daniel F
Whatever, dude. You’re obviously the anti-TOS version of the pro-Transformers commenter “ogb.”
Vic
Ah yes I recognize his name Andy, I’ll check that book out.
He also wrote a compelling voyager novel I believe it was called “The Fury”. Voyager crew literally ends up in satans pit. Pretty intense story. !!!
It was part 4 of a series wide novel arc. A very good series.
Gary, I think you are right. I think TOS budget was whatever Roddenberry could get from bottle deposits from around the studio every week. LOL.
I don’t care how cheesy the show looks now, it influenced me big time growing up. Any show that can have you look to the future with hope is a damn fine show in my book. If TOS had the effects available during TNG or any of the other series, it would have BLOWN those away with the same stories it originally used.
790, I have that series as well. My GF makes fun of me because I literally have hundreds of Trek books spanning the last 30+ years. My faves are still TOS novels, but anything Trek related is good for me. There was a GREAT Trek novel that combined 2 of my favorite things: Trek and dinosaurs. I think it was called First Frontier. Diane Carey wrote it, I believe. I could just sit down and knock out one of those novels in an afternoon. LOL.
Andy S.
ILOVED Fallen Heroes!
I am really upset That Pocket Books didnt use the opportunity of the release of the new Trek film toRelease some reissues of some of the better Trek novels .
It just bugs that even with the new film,
I go into any bookstore in my area,
and get a row and a half of Trek novels
and get two and a half rows of Star Wars novels .
I liked TOS and TNG, I didn’t dislike one over the other.
I grew up with TNG and loved it, but I also loved seeing the TOS episodes.
Andy S The funny thing is there are plenty of comments from me on here agreeing with the majority opinion on a lot of things. I simply state how I really feel I can respect you not agreeing or not liking it whatever, but I’m certainly not trying to get a rise out of people. I’m just very opinionated and can sometimes be overly harsh. I apologize for that, but it’s how I am. I try not to insult people personally just the things they enjoy that I don’t. I truly believe that if you have an opinion and you don’t believe it to be the truth or what’s right than you don’t deserve to have one.
@Gary…
I get the same thing at both my local Border AND Barnes and Nobel. But then again, I love the Star Wars books too.
lol, Andy, prob not Janeway, even though I love her as a Captain. The casting was part of the writing process as that’s why it never became anything more than a treatment. (Basic story)
Brief as possible:
The story took place after Nemesis and Voyager.
Voyager was classified as top secret as it had weapons from the future,,, section 31 had used another intrepid class ship as the real Voyager and put that out on display as the famous ship. Meanwhile Starfleet was busy back- engineering the weapons technology from Voyager out in deep space. The Romulans find out and it causes a shockwave of distrust throughout the historic peace negotiations involving the Federation accepting the Romulans.
The Rom’s have suffered greatly from the Shinzon incident and a peace treaty was in their best interests.
^
Meanwhile, out in deep space somewhere we see what’s left of the Spacial hub that was destroyed in Voyagers last episode. There’s a small spark in the vacuum of space that seems to be getting larger,,,
On the other side of spark (insert cool cgi effect here) we see “The Borg from a the Mirror Universe” have created a massive device that is slowly breaking through to our multiverse. Hanging out behind this device are 1000 Borg Cubes and a Queens ship.
The rest of the story involved Riker’s ship (if poss) Voyagers crew. (Tuvok, 7 of 9) O’Brian from DS9 as well as Kira.
Sisko would play a huge role (if casting permited?)
We would also see mirror versions of the Borg Queen as well as past cast members as some of them find a way over to our side,,,
The story has multiple endings, my favorite was a cliff hanger that could branch out into a sequel.
Always good to write in a sequel ending.
That sounds pretty cool, man.
BTW, did you read the newer crossover series that explained the origins of the Borg? VERY VERY cool series.
@Rob…
Don’t get me wrong, I loved TNG (although Troi was annoying at times, and don’t get me started on the Ferengei). My roommates and I in college wouldn’t miss an episode when it was in first runs…
Daniel F I am very gratefull that the VAST MAJORITY of Scifi Fans did not agree with you, as if the majority disliked TOS and felt it was Cheese we would never had gotten The Next Gen or any other star trek!!!
A landslide of fan mail got season 3 made, as the show had been cancelled near season 2′s end. Then after the 3 season was cancelled a constant flow of mail was responded to with the Sat. morn. cartoon, and then conventions started poping up in 1973, 300 were expected over 3500 showed up, the next convention expected 4,000 8,000 came, and the fan mail continued,
Star Trek Phase 2 was announced in TV guide in spring 1977 or 78 for a fall debue, but with the success of Star Wars Paramount decided to do the unheard of Take A TV show to the movies! and it as a success,
TOS had a very good box office run, and it was due to there success at the theater, as to why Gene R. was able to sell the NEX Gen To TV, even though many TOS fans did not care for it, it did find a new audiance, as each trek series to follow did, and I did enjoy a few episodes from each one, my expectations for this film Star Trek 11 were very low I expected to hate it, but it is very well done, tonight I enjoyed the 3rd time even more!
Thanks Andy, no I don’t know what (Borg) series that is? What’s the title, I’ll check it out.
Hey have you read any of the “Star Trek Strange New Worlds” collections. Those are also real cool. There fan based short stories.
This post is for JJ Abrams should he read these posts, shoulod he like to respond to me I dont mind if my email is given to him!
Well done looking forward to more stories from this cast whom also did Very Well!!
As a TOS fan I do not mind the plot and look forward to the story continuing in this setting, as it really opens the door to originality for the new cast and future story lines so all can make Star Trek there own, and it also leaves open for exploring estabblished Trek Lore as you did with the Kobie Oshia Maruu test, and how McCoy came to be called bones, amoung others.
I remember reading when shooting started that the writters strike was on, and as a result you could not change the script in any way, I was really worried when I heard that, but now after having seen it 3 times, how on earth could it be made any better? Good Job Well Done!!!
I am open to a directors cut and or alternate scenes and or endings that could be included on the DVD release, I have enjoyed these features that were done for other films, 9 times out of 10 I like the 1st released movie best, but always enjoy seeing other ideas. Hope you and paramount can do this!!!
I am looking forward to Star Trek 2 BC!!! A TOS fan in my 50s!!!
790, it’s a 3-part series called Star Trek Destiny, but I think I might have ruined the books by accident for you. Still a great read, though.
“Destiny” is what series is that based in ???
Sounds cool,,,
It’s primarily TNG universe with Ezri Dax in it as well, but it crosses back in Enterprise time also. Good read. I think it took me 4 days to read all 3 books. My GF was NOT amused. LOL.
Thanks Andy I will check those novels out!
790,
Destiny titles are Gods of night Mere mortals And Lost Souls
By David Mack .
Thanks Gary, I’m going to the book store tomorrow!!!
Definitely getting those !
Also just fyi, if your a fan of “Star Trek, The Next Generation”, there’s a new dvd compilation that came out today, “Best of TNG”. On one disc.
It contains The Best of Both Worlds,1&2 Yesterdays Enterprise, and The Measure of a Man.
They also released a best of TOS, it contains City on the edge of Forever, Mirror Mirror, and two others that I forgot,,, sorry,
There packaged in a cheap package around 15 bucks.
BC I’m actually glad people liked it back then as well for that exact reason. I understand that with out it TNG would of never happened. I am very grateful that it had a cult following in it’s time. I loved TNG and enjoyed DS9 from time to time. I don’t care that people like it now though I find it odd that people actually think it’s good these days. Back in the day there wasn’t many good things out to really compare it to. In todays standards though there have been plenty of great shows so I find it odd people still think it’s a great show, but I would understand people still enjoying it to latch on to their childhood. I haven’t personally insulted anyone for liking I merely gave my blunt honest opinion of the show and Shat.
I was weary of an alternate time line and all the implications of that. I had not realized, until I saw the new movie, that it meant we don’t have to retcon anything. We can see all new adventures with no bearing on TOS. I loved watching Star Trek and the smile never left my face.
Some of you had low expectations, I had the opposite. I had high expectations of JJ Abrams et al and they did not fail. The movie was a thrill ride and reinvigorated my dreams of becoming and engineer. I love Star Trek once again.