Wolverine & Star Trek Outselling Iron Man In Ticket Sales
Apr 23, 2009 by Rob KeyesJust how big will Wolverine & Star Trek be at the box office?
Remember last year when a then relatively unknown Marvel superhero got his big screen debut? He goes by the alias Iron Man and he earned nearly $100 million at the box-office in his opening weekend.
If ticket pre-sales are any indicator, it’s possible that Wolverine in his solo spin-off origin film may beat Iron Man‘s opening weekend. It doesn’t seem like that leaked, unfinished version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine is hampering pre-sales as MovieTickets.com is reporting that it’s currently outselling Iron Man 3-to-1 in ticket sales in the same time frame prior to release.
Surprised? Impressed? Well, that’s not all! J.J. Abrams franchise-saving Star Trek is doing even better than that despite the fact it is being released a week later. Below is the report detailing the advanced ticket numbers:
X-MEN OUTSELLING IRON MAN
As of Wednesday, MovieTickets.com is reporting that “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” is currently outpacing ticket sales for “Iron Man” 3-to-1 at the same point in the sales cycle (nine days prior to the film’s release).
Both films boast release dates during the first weekend in May during the last two years. “X-Men” releases Friday, May 1, 2009. “Iron Man” released in 2008 on Friday, May 2.”
STAR TREK OUTSELLING X-MEN
Despite releasing a week later than “X-Men,” “Star Trek” has already sold 25% more advance tickets at MovieTickets.com than “X-Men.”
It seems that the economy sure isn’t affecting the movie business negatively this summer, and that’s a good thing considering the plethora of major summer tent-pole films we’ll be seeing this year.
What do you think of the pre-ticket sales numbers? Do you think they’re a strong indicator of what we’ll see opening weekend in terms of box-office sales? And, more importantly, will you be seeing these two movies? I know I will.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens next Friday, May 1 2009. Star Trek hits theaters the following weekend on May 8th with 7:00pm screenings on May 7th.
Around the web:
Loading ...
That is really surprising. I didn’t think that Wolverine could out gross Iron Man in its opening weekend. I knew that Star Terk was going to be big.
Am I going to see them? Is that a trick question?
Great news. Thanks Rob.
Ja!! Just wait next year to see how Iron Man 2 does…
Amen Iron Knight! AMEN!
The fact that these two movies are outselling Iron Man is somewhat surprising, but of course, Iron Man was a new breed, whereas these two movies are a part of long-time franchises.
I may or may not see Wolverine. It looks fine, I just don’t know.
Star Trek is a hell yes. It looks awesome. I’ll be there opening day.
Agreed.
I plan to see both of these,
and I cant wait for iron man 2.
Im quite excited.
Not really a surprise here, nor is it really a fair comparison. Iron Man was that character’s first live action movie. Wolverine has its X-Men fanbase and Star Trek is, well, it’s Star Trek. It’s like comparing Iron Man’s opening day to Star Wars Episode 1 opening… Of course I’m not saying Star Trek will be as bad as SW E1… Man, the original trilogy was so much better… Episode III was ok though since everyone got limbs and heads cut off, so that was cool…
I struggle to believe that Iron Man was “relatively unknown” prior to the film last year.
now lets see if they will beat “the dark knight” or “titanic” in ticket sales
@arrell
To the non-comic book fan, Iron Man was not a household name like Spider-Man or Batman.
@Matt K
Not a chance.
Vic
Yah arrell, I’m sure just as many people who have not read the comics would have been interested in Iron Man then compared to a X-Men character that has had 3 movies already now, and a Star Trek movie…
For all intensive purposes, Wolverine is considered a “sequel” even though it is technically a prequel, but it comes after other movies of the same character have already come out, so in the market it acts like a sequel would. While Iron Man was a non-sequel so it relied on how effective its advertising was and for the comic book fans. There wasn’t a standing “Iron Man film” fanbase at the time.
Star Trek is a definite for me, but Wolverine might end up DVD fodder after the leak and all. That money will be better spent on Terminator Salvation, which looks fantastic so far. As for Iron Man 2 goes… *squeals, but in a manly way*
When Wolverine was announced i’ve got no interest in seeing it, but now (i admit it) after all the advertising, i’m hyped. -blame it on screenrant for that
I’ve never been a fan of Star trek (tv series, movies, collectibles, porn, etc) but im looking forward to see this movie. The trailers look awesome, except for the new spock, he looks gay.
Me and my friends are sci-fi fanatics, but due to are cineam schedulings we’ll basically have to choose between the 2 films, I’m leaning towards Star Trek.
I’m going to see both, and I hope that Star Trek will be in IMAX on opening day. THAT would be sweet!!!
@ Andy,
IMAX would be cool for Trek. The few IMAX screens around here are so busy, I’ll probably have to take a few friends to see it for our second viewing there after the crowds calm down.
Both are opening-nighters for me although I have low expectations for Wolverine
May will be a great month!
Well, to help you out: Wolverine is getting panned by most of the people that watched it already, but if you liked X3, it’s about on that level. Hope you don’t like the comics, it’s completely different.
Star Trek on the other hand, has yet to receive a bad review, and is getting, as CNN said, “Dark Knight” level praise. Not to mention that despite the similar budgets, Trek is a epic giant sci-fi adventure with ILM effects, where as Wolverine pretty much consists of an exploding helicopter and a collapsing big…thing.
Just go see Trek. It’s a better movie, it has better effects, acting, pretty much everything across the board.
Critch, it won’t get Dark Knight praise until someone from the cast tragically dies. Then it will explode into a fervor like TDK.
I actually am surprised by this, but I am going to skip Wolverine in the theater. I lost all enthusiasm for it at some point. I am really looking forward to Star Trek. My prediction is that Wolverine will have a very strong opening weekend, but then the following week Star Trek will do double (I’m speaking solely of the opening weekend totals).
@Critch, its being panned cuz most of the people that have seen it already are the ones who cant understand that you have to change things for films. Plus im pretty sure your just visiting comic sites cuz ive been to other sites where they say that its a really good movie.
@oscar!
what are you saying?
dude, wolverine is baaaaad. it pains me to say it a) because im huge jackman fan b) because wolverine is my 2 favorite comic book hero, but wolvie sucks on soooo many levels.
script is full of cliches, performances are bad (including jackmans, but huston is truly cringeworthy), direction bland. surffice to say that it makes X3 look outstanding.
i mean, when kevin durand is best thing in your picture…
oh i should just shut up
I’m sure if I saw the unfinished work for Trek I’d have thought it was crap. I’m seeing both of these and my belief is that Trek will be better but that’s because it’s not Fox and Abrams is a proven director.
Yup Marvin, you should shut up. You watched a crappy version on your computer screen. How can you even rate the movie? lol get outta here
@oscar!
sweety, i saw it couple of days ago, in theater. during a press screening. saw leaked version earlier today. actually just skimmed through it.
but again, tastes differ. :s
That’s funny, you went to a pre-screening(which I highly doubt) but you felt it necessary to watch the bootleg version? Lol and you think it’s cool to spoil things? Lol sweety your funny.
im w/ oscar on that.
whats the point in watching the unfinished version if you went to a “pre-screening”?
perhaps to try to figure out where those extra reshoot scenes fox studio bosses where talking about are (hint: nowhere to be found.
look it dosent matter. go and see the movie. if i have major issues with it dosent mean you will as well
did some of you guys actually compare trek and wolvie with TDK??? haha c’mon now!
Um, think you forgot to mention they compared Wolvie to Iron Man… I’m not going to say anything about Star Trek, because to Trekkies it will probably be 10 times as epic as anything else…