Posted on 05/09/2009 8:50:46 AM PDT by lewisglad
BLAST-OFF! 'Star Trek' Opens To $25M Friday; With $7M Thursday That's $32M So Far; Weekend Prediction Now $72M; Its Audience Wider Than Just Fanbase
FRIDAY 9:45 PM: Sources tell me that the North American opening number for Paramount's No. 1 Star Trek grosses today is looking like $25 million from 3,849 theaters. So, adding in Thursday 7 PM-Midnight screenings, the reimagined space odyssey has made $32 million so far. My insiders say the total weekend number now could easily reach $72M. "But it still has a shot at $75M if it gets any bump on Saturday," an exec explains. (Rival studios now think the Fri-Sat-Sun tally will only be $65M "because it's not expanding as the night goes on".) To put that in perspective, a domestic weekend total under $50M would have meant the pic didn't attract a new and younger audience and relied instead on the franchise's older but loyal fanbase of Trekkies. It was risky for Paramount to market the movie as "not your father's Star Trek". But the critical reviews for JJ Abrams' reboot are 90+% positive.
I hear the studio is celebrating international figures already: how "it's pretty spectacular" that Star Trek's debut in the UK, Australia, and Germany made almost the same as Fox's X-Men Origins: Wolverine's in those territories last weekend. Star Trek opened day and date in 54 countries Friday, and the goal of this new pic was to finally attract more filmgoers overseas. "Remember, this movie franchise has never done $100M international before," an exec reminds me tonight.
No. 2 was Fox's X-Men Origins: Wolverine which made $8.2 million Friday (-76% from a week ago) from 4,102 theaters for a projected $28M weekend and new cume of $131M. It crossed $200M today in worldwide grosses. No. 3 was New Line/Warner Bros' Ghosts of Girlfriends Past with a $3.1M Friday (-46% from a week ago) from 3,175 theaters for an expected $10M weekend and new cume of $30.5M. No. 4 was Screen Gem/Sony's Obsessed with $1.9M Friday from 2,602 theater for a predicted $6.2M weekend and new cume of $56M. No. 5 was Summit Entainment's Next Day Air with only a $1.4M opening from 1,138 theaters for maybe a $4M terrible weekend
I am a big fan of the original series and I hated all the wussy spinoffs. Only a very few of the movies were any good most notably the second and the fourth.
Rick Berman ran the Star Trek franchise from roughly 1990-2007 and really drove it into the ground for the last decade. They never should have let him have complete creative control after Gene Roddenberry died. This movie goes back to basics, like how they rebooted Bond and Batman and all that after some horrible movies (though I thought Star Trek Nemesis was OK). The difference is this movie is a prequel and manages to reboot things through an in-universe sci-fi explanation.
This reboot is the movie TOS lovers have been waiting for. Kirk is back and gone is the PC crowd which was killing the franchise. Field promotions are the order of the day as is fighting for what you believe in. I saw it on IMAX and then at a regular theater and I am amazing at how much more vivid IMAX is. This is a remake and should lead to decent Movies and series which Gene would like. The casting was about perfect. Long live Star Trek !
I wonder if the feud beyween Shatner and Takei had anything to do with the fact that Takei is gay.
I am pleased to hear.
I think the fact that Scotty was always "buttered side up" was to blame for that!
Karl Urban plays McCoy. A good actor, he was terrific as Eomer in the Rings Trilogy. I think he’d be a good McCoy. Also, I read that Bruce Greenwood is Captain Pike. Greenwood was very good in “Nowhere Man”, a very good paranoid series that had an unfortunate title.
I don’t have any plans to see the new “Trek” until it hits DVD. Having said that, though, if Morn the Barfly from DS9 happens to be in it, I’m on my way to the theater NOW!!
“In that case, I might just break my own ban against going to movie theaters.”
It’s worth every penny. This movie is something else. I’m a fan of the first 6 Star Trek movies, the old series, one of about 14 or 15 people that loved Enterprise, and a few seasons of TNG.
From start to finish I was blown away. Some people are getting torqued that it messes with Trek canon, but I can care less about those things...for the most part anyway. The cast is excellent, the plot/story is fantastic, and the special effects only make the movie even better :-)!
Don’t worry about Capt. Kirk ... the character appears to be in good hands now :-)! McCoy is downright perfect and I think Zachary Quinto (Spock) is actually a cloned Leonard Nimoy :-).
OK...I might be in the minority here and more than a few folks have suggested that I’m a bit old fashioned but,IMO,there are certain films/TV shows that just can’t be....just shouldn’t be...remade.Star Trek falls well into that category...as does ‘To Kill A Mockingbird” and many other films and shows.
I agree with you. I still enjoy the original “Trek” on dvd, and even though I did enjoy “DS9” and “Voyager”, I wish Hwd would come up with something new instead of remake after remake, and sequel after sequel.
These days, I spend most of my entertainment-time with a decent book from the library.
“OK...I might be in the minority here and more than a few folks have suggested that I’m a bit old fashioned..”
You’re not old fashioned by any means :-)! I know exactly what you mean about messing with film/literature, etc. While I have to admit that the first trailer for this film had me a bit fired up (the one where they are assembling the Enterprise), I started to get queasy when I started seeing the sets, etc. In the end, it all worked.
This really isn’t a remake...it’s a glimpse into how the characters became the people they are (granted it is a somewhat altered timeline now). They needed younger actors. The ones they chose are perfect.
Trust me, I am one who does not hype up movies at all. I find most movies lame and boring these days. However, if you are a fan of Star Trek, please do yourself a favor and go see this. It is simply 2 hours of pure sci-fi fun and it *is* Star Trek! I’m telling you, these actors they snagged to play these roles exceeded my expectations....and my expectations were beyond high for this film.
Let’s put it this way....the Star Wars prequels ruined those most of those movies and stories for me...I can only sit through The Empire Strikes Back anymore. I have no desire to ever read another Star Wars book. This new Star Trek has done the EXACT opposite for me ... it reminded me of why I loved this series. I’ll be getting those TOS BluRays myself this week :-)!
BTW, your tagline is friggin excellent :-)!
IMHO the Star Trek canon needed to be seriously messed with. The ST universe had gotten so convoluted and compromised that it really needed a complete "re-boot." This movie does that, and I'm really looking forward to both seeing this movie again, and seeing sequels in the new Trek universe.
New Trek is better than Old Trek. Actually, what I'd really like to see is a TV series in the New Trek universe. I love TV space opera and the pickings are slim nowadays.
Slight spoiler alert . . .
color me delighted that the TNG/movie musical score did not get used at all in the new movie, as far as I noticed. It was old school, TOS theme music playing over the end credits (although I admit I didn't stay for all of the credits, so they may have tacked on the TNG theme at the end.)
I urge you to go see the movie. There is NO “let’s just sit down and talk” nonsense. Kick butt and move on is the order of the day here. It was a blast.
Regards,
Kirk is 28?!?!?!
I have no idea. . .perhaps you are asking the question of someone else?
Kirk is 25 or 26. In the TOS he was 34 when we met him and had been in command for some time. The field promotion culture is similar to what happened in WWII so it is not completely off the rails.
Good lord! A TV series based off of the new Star Trek movie? I'd . . . start watching television again!
Turning square-jawed, two-fisted space opera into something modern and fresh was a longshot, but they certainly pulled it off. Santa couldn't possibly love us enough to bring a TV series to match.
Could he?
Not even in WW2 would we have had a 26 year old in command of a heavy cruiser-class ship, so that's stretching it quite a bit. I can see wanting to have a young crew so the franchise can be stretched for a couple of decades if this works out.
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