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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
“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.”
It’d be amazing if they could do something like 18, 1/2 hour episodes in between movies ... basically 9 episodes per year and space them out evenly between the fall and summer (like in the fall, run 4 episodes, then 5 episodes in the spring/summer with a 1 hour finale). You figure 22 minutes of viewing time for each episode would lead to a nice, three hour story each season. That story could subsequently lead into the next film.
The only reason I suggest 1/2 hour episodes is that the new TV show would HAVE to maintain the special effects quality in the new movie (especially all of the computer graphics and stuff on the bridge....I completely dig that eye candy like “shield status”, “warp factor”, etc.). That would translate into a LOT of $$$ to produce these shows. However, something tells me that they could recoup those $$$ in no time.
One other big bonus with shorter seasons is less filler material and much better writing in my humble opinion.
I know nothing like this would ever happen, but its nice to dream a little :-)!
Just came back from the movie. If anything can resurrect this franchise, this movie can. It was FUN. Carl Urban is PERFECT as McCoy. The rest of the cast is very well done, and there is a lot of humor.
I hated the last few ST movies, but this one I like and I would not mind at all to see another sequel.
A constantly moving jittery camera does not help either the acting or the plot. Just hold the stupid thing still, so we can see what's going on!
You said — I don’t have any plans to see the new “Trek” until it hits DVD.
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Well, it might not have hit DVD yet — but — it is on the P2P network (BitTorrent, on The Pirate Bay...) :-)
I just got through watching it from a BitTorrent download...
You said — 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.
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Well..., you know it’s not remade. It’s a prequel. There is a difference. I mean, if Star Wars can do three prequels then Star Trek should be able to do one... :-)
I’m with you. Avoiding this POS like the plague.
I hated the last few ST movies, but this one I like and I would not mind at all to see another sequel.
I just saw it this afternoon, too. First time I've ever heard applause from the audience when the credits rolled on a Trek film. Personally, I always like the original series and most of the feature films up through #6 (heck, even ST-V is tolerable in "edited" form).
Never cared much for TNG or DS9 and really hated Voyager. Enterprise was just lame, apart from the Tholians/USS Defiant/Mirror Universe episodes.
I went to see this new film loaded with skepticism, but it really worked well. The only question is, can they do it again?
I totally enjoyed most the next generation movies except generations.
Shatner didn’t get along with Doohan or Koenig either.
Karl Urban is at his best in the Chronicles of Riddick
This is a reboot, just like they rebooted the James Bond movies.
RDM of BSG did DS9 and in my opinion of all of the spin offs was the best and had the best characterizations and storyline.
The guy that plays McCoy - NAILS IT!
How do you know it's a POS unless you see it?
Especially when 90% of the moviegoers love it.
Good for them. Let them go to Mass. and marry Abrams. Any movie about time travel sucks.
My son saw it twice, and had some friends that went. All were impressed and said it was a great movie.
Looking forward to seeing it myself.
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