It’s a winning weekend for “Star Trek Beyond” with a $59.6 million finish.
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Star Trek Beyond boldly went to the top of the box office in its weekend debut, sending The Secret Life of Pets to the doghouse in the number two spot.
But given the movie reportedly cost nearly $185 million to make, it is going to have to enjoy a very successful run overseas in order for Paramount to have any chance of making their money back.
Yet even as Star Trek Beyond won the weekend, the result was less-than-ideal for Viacom’s (VIAB) Paramount Studios, which has the thinnest film slates for this summer among Hollywood’s largest six studios and is relying on the success of Beyond to sustain operations for the near term.
The Secret Life of Pets came in second with $29.3 million, making for a three-week sum of $260.7 million. Though the drop in receipts isn’t large by blockbuster movie standards, it is the most for a Paul Feig comedy – not a great sign for the ghost bustin’ franchise’s future. But with the lowest domestic opening of the franchise so far, it’s not clear how much longer the cash cow can be milked before it converts to direct to Netflix.
While Sony says a sequel is going to happen, you can be sure they will be cutting the budget drastically if it does happen at all. In fourth place was newcomer “Lights Out” at $21.6 million, and “Ice Age: Collision Course” in fifth place with just $21 million its opening weekend. Given the film’s $105 million production budget, the animated sequel is on a collision course of its own. It seems the writing is on the wall and it’s time for Fox to let the ice melt and Ice Age to go extinct.
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Fox Searchlight’s Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie opened outside the top 10 with $1.8m.
