Star Trek's box office not so great...trailer to blame?

[enyawd72]

I saw the film last night and thought it was really great.
Having seen it, I also now think the trailer was poorly done and severely undersold the film. It also did not accurately reflect the content or tone. The movie shown in the trailer was not the movie I saw last night.

[spacecaps]

I can't believe they kept the details about this film under wraps the way they did. Go see it before you find out too much about it. What the trailer showed and what the movie is are two different things but the final film is soooo much better than I thought. I'm pretty sure this is the best Trek film to date and word of mouth will help this along. As for the ticket sales you cannot go by those. Theaters are always padding their numbers by selling the incorrect film to the movie you ask for. Last week I went to see Gatsby, and the cashier gave me two tickets for Iron Man 3. Today I asked for two tickets for Star Trek and got two tickets to Iron Man 3. This isn't an accident. Theaters do this deliberately to offset the cost of the price they pay for the number of prints they ordered per theater. I spent years working in movie theaters as a manager and we were told for years by the GM's to do this exact same thing from time to time. Lord of The Rings was a huge offender of this same practice. Box Office cashiers are told to do it discreetly and selectively and it's way more rampant than you might think.

[Klosterheim]

They should just make, and put, out a low budget Star Trek film every year.

That way, the studio don't have to worry about Box Office sales, Box Office is all about their ego now. Leggo my ego. (The Dead Milkmen)

Usually the investment can be made up at the theater, then they can make extra profit on the DVD sales.

[palitoy]

The movie is performing well, it's up over the last one.

[Hector]

The movie is performing well, it's up over the last one.

Yes, it will be have the biggest box office out of all the Treks, this is the first one truly clicking with foreign markets.

[Hector]

Trekkies (I'm one by the way) complain about box office take on this one?

That's hilarious. The only Trek flick that went barely over $100 million (aside from the first reboot) was The Voyage Home (First Contact is second at a paltry $98 million), Star Trek films were never box office hits, and its foreign box office was basically non-existent.

I don't wanna see low budget Trek junk, if you wanna go low budget, then make another TV show instead.

[Godzilla]

From Box Office Mojo (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3686&p=.htm)

Star Trek Into Darkness easily opened on top this weekend, though it wasn't the kind of box office sensation that many—including distributor Paramount—were expecting it to be.

The J.J. Abrams-directed sequel took in an estimated $70.6 million for the three-day frame; add in its grosses from Wednesday night and all-day Thursday, and the movie has to-date earned $84.1 million. In comparison, 2009's Star Trek grossed $75.2 million for the weekend, and $86.7 million through its first four-and-a-half days.

While it's usually unfair to knock a movie for opening in line with its predecessor, it certainly feels like the "disappointment" label is applicable in this case. All signs suggest the 2009 Trek is very well-liked (it has a strong 8.0 rating on IMDb) and Paramount's marketing did a decent job walking the sequel tightrope (a balanced approach of promising more-of-the-same and offering something new). Additionally, there was four years of ticket price inflation and the addition of 3D and IMAX premiums. Based on historical comparisons, this should have added up to around $100 million for the four-day weekend, which was what Paramount was publicly forecasting going in to the weekend.

A few theories have been thrown out regarding the underwhelming opening, including the lack of definition surrounding the villain and the lengthy time between sequels (four years is generally too long). It seems more likely, though, that it fell victim to the incredibly competitive May schedule. There's only so much money to go around, and following the strong performances of Iron Man 3 and The Great Gatsby—and a week ahead of a jam-packed Memorial Day—Star Trek Into Darkness just wasn't a compelling enough proposition for casual moviegoers.

Trek's demographics tell an interesting story that contributes to that theory: the audience skewed heavily male (64 percent) and older (73 percent over the age of 25). In comparison, the first movie did a better job reaching women (only 60 percent male) and younger audiences (only 65 percent over 25).

Even with good word-of-mouth—definitely possible, given the strong "A" CinemaScore—Trek is facing insanely tough competition from Fast & Furious 6 (and, to a lesser extent, The Hangover Part III) over Memorial Day weekend. As a result, there's no way that it ultimately matches its predecessor's $257.7 million total, though a final tally north of $200 million should still be achievable.

Coinciding with its domestic debut, Star Trek Into Darkness expanded to around half of its foreign potential and added $40 million. It's only major new market was Russia, where its $8 million opening was double the total gross of the first movie. On average, Into Darkness tripled the last movie's debut across its 34 new markets. Still, including last weekend's territories its only trending up 80 percent over its predecessor, which earned a terrible $128 million in 2009. To date, Into Darkness has grossed $80.5 million overseas.

[Goblin19]

With word of mouth, it should have good legs. Ans, as Hector said, the foreign box office will more than make up for the slightly soft opening. I just watched it and thought it was greatly entertaining, just like the last one. For a long movie, it just flew by.

[toys2cool]

people should be watching it just based on the last one, not the crappy trailer

[Klosterheim]

I don't know why anyone, that is not in the movie industry, cares about the box office sales of Star Trek.

Star Trek does not make the top 200 domestic take list. (Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation)

Star Trek has some stiff competition.

1) Gone with the Wind
2) Star Wars
3) The Sound of Music
4) E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
5) Titanic

[enyawd72]

I don't know why anyone, that is not in the movie industry, cares about the box office sales of Star Trek.

It's really quite simple. I care because I love Star Trek and want to see more movies. If they don't perform well at the box office and the studio loses money, they'll stop making them.

[kingdom warrior]

It's really quite simple. I care because I love Star Trek and want to see more movies. If they don't perform well at the box office and the studio loses money, they'll stop making them.

Not True, Star Trek is a merchandising juggernaut, The movie has to just perform above well enough. The real money is made in merchandising and Licensing the product. NONE of the old Star Trek movies did super well in the Box office.

These movies have turned the younger generation to the Old series, My son is now a Trekkie junkie plowing through ALL the series and all the movies all Because of this new series. Star Trek is BANK and Producers know that. This new series easily can Pop at at least five movies before it runs it's course....and then they have to figure out what to do after that.

[ctc]

>The movie has to just perform above well enough. The real money is made in merchandising and Licensing the product.

I wonder how much of that factors into these numbers.

>The movie shown in the trailer was not the movie I saw last night.

The movie shown in the trailers was "Skyfall."

Don C.

[enyawd72]

Not True, Star Trek is a merchandising juggernaut, The movie has to just perform above well enough. The real money is made in merchandising and Licensing the product. NONE of the old Star Trek movies did super well in the Box office.

These movies have turned the younger generation to the Old series, My son is now a Trekkie junkie plowing through ALL the series and all the movies all Because of this new series. Star Trek is BANK and Producers know that. This new series easily can Pop at at least five movies before it runs it's course....and then they have to figure out what to do after that.

Ordinarily I would agree with you, but I haven't seen any merchandise from this new movie. Nobody's making any toys I know of. I think the huge flop of the last toyline left a bad taste in retailer's mouths where Star Trek is concerned. Heck, my TRU still has stuff from the last movie on clearance that's just sitting there.

[kingdom warrior]

Ordinarily I would agree with you, but I haven't seen any merchandise from this new movie. Nobody's making any toys I know of. I think the huge flop of the last toyline left a bad taste in retailer's mouths where Star Trek is concerned. Heck, my TRU still has stuff from the last movie on clearance that's just sitting there.

Agree with you on the Toys.....they did sit there collecting dust.