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
Is Kirk going to be a real man like he was in the original series?
I hope so.
Couldn’t stand to see anything less than that.
Would break my heart.
They have the original captain Chris Pike and Kirk takes over from him, looks pretty good.
Can’t wait to see it on DVD!
Well, this new guy will never replace Bill Shatner, but he has plenty of testosterone. The guy who really stole some scenes was the fellow playing Leonard McCoy. He was a riot.
I went last night with a bunch of teenagers and a set of partens from my church. The kids loved it. So did I.
I read the local movie guy’s review this morning—he gave it high marks because it stands on its own as a great sci-fi movie aside from the Star Trek franchise. I’m looking forward to it.
Yay. The republic is saved.
Thanks.
In that case, I might just break my own ban against going to movie theaters.
Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As ‘Fun, Watchable’ http://www.theonion.com/content/video/trekkies_bash_new_star_trek_film
Oh, yea. It was fantastic. The character developments were stop on. From the opening till the close - great.
I saw it last night & I really enjoyed it!
LOL.
HA. . .I forgot all about that one. A man’s-man kind of guy. . . .!
It better be a smash since it opened in over 7000 theaters.
Frankly I am amazed that this franchise is still alive and breathing. The last few movies from this franchise have been boring, dull, unoriginal, mindless and stupid.
OBAMA PROPOSES NEW YOUTH PROGRAM AIMED AT MAKING IT COOL TO BE LAME'NEWSWEEK' ANNOUNCES PLANS TO SWITCH TO AN ALL-PHOTOS-OF-OBAMA-LOOKING-CONTEMPLATIVE FORMAT
This one isn't. It's not just a re-boot of the entire Star Trek universe, it's closer to a TV Battlestar Galactica-style "re-imagining", but IMHO better done. (I am not a big fan of the new Galactica--too dark, political, and frankly boring for my taste.)
In the new Trek movie, the characterizations are really, really strong--strong enough to carry what I think is actually a rather pedestrian plot. But the plot isn't the story here, it's the characters. And, the plot is consistent enough to explain why this Star Trek is different from the previous TV series and movies. But this one is about the characters--Kirk, Spock, McCoy mainly.
And yeah, they got Kirk right. "Give them everything we've got!" No PC namby-pamby Jean-Luc Picard yawnfest here. Kirk's character is inclined to shoot first and ask questions later, just as he should be.
It's a whole new Star Trek. Forget TNG, forget Deep Space Nine, forget Voyager, forget "Enterprise." For that matter, forget most of what happened in the original TV series.
If you ever liked Star Trek, I think you'll really like the new movie.
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