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
How odd...My son along with 6 others I know have seen it, and every one of them thought it was a great movie.
Not a POS at all. Actually a VERY good reboot of the series. I'd have to say that there are some thin spots, Starfleet admirals must be pretty stupid, and how he winds up with command as naval traditions seem really different than current time.
But it was and is a very enjoyable movie.
Yeah, I didn’t like the camera work too much, but there were one or two moments where they did the ‘everyone leans over in their chairs and the camera shakes a bit’ thing that happened every time the Enterprise got hit by a phaser or whatever in TOS - to me, that was one of the little things that made this movie so awesome. Although, we didn’t need any more “Lost”, if the plot was any more complicated I think nobody would understand it.
And, I’ve got to admit, I was raised on the original series, and had very high expectations and, while I knew the movie would not entirely stick to canon, wanted it to be extremely close. And, I was satisfied - it wasn’t really about the plot, it was about the characters which were PERFECT (especially McCoy! I don’t have words for how amazed I am at Karl Urban’s performance here) and the explanation for the alternate timeline, including the references to the ‘other’ universe that was clearly the TOS one, was satisfactory for me.
You mean the Federation.
Why would Takei turn gay over having a fight with Shatner?
After exposure to enough concentrated Shatner, almost any man will feel gay by comparison. Chuck Norris, on the other hand, is the only man who could turn Shatner gay.
And the interplay between the young Spock and youthfully babish Nyota I-Never-Knew-Her-First-Name Uhuru is a fun twist.
Good for you. Go see it twenty more times and make sure Paramount and Abrams make another million. It is everything I despise in a movie-from ‘rebooting’/’reimagining’ to young mostly unheard-of little-talent jerkoffs in the parts (as was said,”*Nobody* can play Spock,Kirk,Uhura,Checkov,Bones and Scotty other than the originals any more than John Travolta can play Atticus Finch. “-Gay State Conservative-FOUR-STAR POST ****)
I also despise J.J. Abrams and everything he’s ever done. I felt Every movie after The Undiscovered Country sucked. Never paid to see another one. Felt DS9 was the only acceptable/halfway worthwhile series after the original, only due to decent characters. And yet you expect me to pay to set through it. No Thanks. Oh, and Don’t forget to buy your kids all the cereals, toys, and tie-in products, which is the real reason it was made. Ta Ta. I’m sure you’re also awaiting the latest Terminator CGI crapfest &Transformers 2.
BTW, I saw an interview with Shatner, and he was talking about the time after TOS was canceled. He was divorced, none of the other series were on the horizon, he hadn't made that much money from the series (there's a lot of information on how DesiLu screwed the original cast) and he was living in a camper-trailer, watching the first moon landing. Interesting story.
Couple of other trivia notes: In TOS, McCoy's medical tools were originally designed to be futuristic salt and pepper shakers. Nobody could tell what they were, so they became McCoy's medical tools and they just used regular salt and pepper shakers. The automatic doors on the show preceded real automatic doors, and they had stage hands slide them open and closed. There were several outtakes where cast members walked into the doors when the stage hands missed their cues. The original transporter effect was done by putting the characters against a blue screen, reversing the cut out, and making the sparkle effect by blowing a fan over long strands of Christmas tinsel. Desilu demanded that their studios make all the props, and charged a little over $500 for each communicator, and close to a thousand for the tricorder. This was one of the screwings they gave to the original producers, by requiring them to buy all their props from Desilu.
One of the reasons making the movie took so long was because many of the actors never received royalties from the original series, and therefore demanded much larger salaries. Desilu did some VERY creative bookkeeping where they would bill the Series budget every time it was shown in reruns, by making the series budget pay the prop department, distribution services, etc, each time TOS was shown. They were able to make it look like they lost money every time the show was shown in rerun. This kept the contract clause that gave the cast a payment after the series showed a profit from ever kicking in.
You seem angry. I clearly said I've not seen it yet, but others I know have, and all said it was a great movie, best they've seen in while.
Feel free not to see it. lol..
Nope, not angry, just not watching this. As I said, by all means, Help yourself and go twenty times. See it as your duty.
Well, I guess you can go have fun watching Pride and Prejudice or Atonement or some other piece of crap adult drama. Thank God for America right?
We'll be watching movies where people are blowing sh%# up and wasting bad guys. Terminator IV looks like it's going to have a LOT of good wholesome violence as well.
Tally Ho and all that.
That's one thing I liked about Enterprise but a lot of people didn't seem to like the time war arc.
I saw the movie on Saturday and loved it. It seemed like it was only the good stuff, like you know sometimes you watch a trailer and think, wow! that looks great, then you see the movie and realize they put all the good stuff in the trailer. Well, this was like that trailer, only it was the whole movie!
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