The film, celebrating the 50 anniversary of Star Trek, brought in $59.6 million, which is nearly exactly what everyone seemed to think the movie would make in its opening weekend.
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Ghostbusters – a remake of the 1984 supernatural comedy that replaces the male leads with women – dropped to less than half of its opening weekend box office, taking in just US$21 million.
It wasn’t quite as good as J.J. Abrams’ 2009 reboot, but it was no doubt better than “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”, the two films that separated the the good Trek movies from the bad ones in our list.
Nearly tripling the grosses of Ice Age: Collision and Lights Out, Star Trek Beyond earned an estimated $59.6 million on about 3,928 screens in its opening week. The last movie in the series, “Ice Age: Continental Drift”, took in $715 million from foreign markets while grossing $161 million in North America. Considering that the second film (‘The Meltdown”) had the series’ highest opening ($68 million) and each of the other three debuts in the $40 million range, it comes as a massive blow that “Collision Course’ opened in the #5 spot to just $21 million.
‘Ice Age: Collision Course, ‘ $21 mn ($30 mn international); 5.
Costing $185-M to make, Star Trek Beyond will need to do strong business overseas.
If the film can conquer China – not unlike how “Terminator: Genisys” and “Warcraft” were saved overseas – then “Star Trek” will safely continue its four-decade cinematic mission. The fifth film in the series is apparently beginning to show its age with domestic audiences, but worldwide the film is approaching break-even numbers, with nearly $200 million in total. The film also launches in 37 global territories this weekend and should play well overseas.
Meanwhile, Lights Out showed the durability of the horror genre as the film from Time Warner’s (TWX) Warner Bros. proves to be one of the big breakout surprises of the year.
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In the final two slots, the latest political documentary from Dinesh D’Souza, Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party carried the top ten for its second week of release as it opened in over 1,200 new theaters, earning an estimated $3.7 million but the ire of the critical community. Up 30% year-over-year, it was a busy weekend at the box office.
