They did it right from the start. By killing George Kirk in the first 10 minutes they dramatically moved things away from old canon.
What past momentum? Paramount killed the past momentum, and a lot of what hurt momentum was 40 years worth of constantly changing canon (Star Trek canon has always had consistency issues). This movie has already made more money domestically than Nemesis made for its entire global run.
They didn’t trash the past, they set it aside, and it wasn’t for the sake of shock value, it was to get rid of 40 years of baggage. All that mighty canon, constantly changing, with nobody being sure what at any given moment is canon or isn’t, has been dragging the franchise down. Of course keep in mind too, by doing the kind of clean break they did it’s always possible, should someone be dumb enough to want to put the albatross of old canon on their neck, to do further “original time line” stories.
According to Paramount Voyager is canon, of course during its run Paramount said at one point it wasn’t, just another shining example of the problem with canon. But of course it’s Roddenberry-Berman time line canon, not Abrams time line canon.
past momentum of the pre-existing fan base. You have had months teaser leaks to the fans. You have forums like FR but dedicated to Trek. We even have fan based productions. Star Ship Exeter comes to mind which has the same production value and quality as the original series. Of course it has the same production value and quality as the original series. (it is still pretty good for what it is)
I noticed the serious cross generational attendance. Many Fathers and sons were in the theater. Many whole families with children who probably only know enterprise at best.
I think the shrinking revenue was a direct result of the “oprafication” of the trek stories. Voyager could have been called the Cheese and Whine series.
My greatest hope on this new incarnation is that it continues to be a family friendly experience. It was GOOD to have a movie you could take the entire family to an actualy theater, overpay for popcorn-candy-drinks, and walk out not feeling ripped off by hollyweird.
(BTW I did notice the young spock fight scene was an almost copy of “yesteryear” from the animated Star Trek. Of course variations of spock as captain alternative timelines have appeard in a number of the paperback books.)
I just hope the suits protect the franchise from collapsing into political correctness preachiness that drove much of the fan base into indifference.
For the record, I am looking forward to 2011 for the next installment. (then again with the drek hollyweird puts out it may be the next time I actually go into a theater)