Monday, May 20, 2013

Star Trek Into Darkness does well, but not well enough

It's another Monday of the summer season, and a day for most studios to reflect back on the weekend gone (eh, they probably be at it from Sunday night itself!). On how the movie fared financially, how strong is the word-of-mouth, how much of the publicity helped the movie score brownie points and how much of it had to bite the dust. For there is nothing bigger than a weekend, especially the first weekend, in the movie business. 

It was the turn of Star Trek Into Darkness to be judged this time. The sequel releasing four years after the reboot of 2009, grossed $70.6 million for the first weekend after its release in North America (USA and Canada), and if you include the Thursday opening figures, it has garnered $84 million. Now those are good numbers, but sadly still not good enough. The weekend numbers are still short of the 2009's Star Trek opening performance in North America by about $5 million. That's quite a bit of disappointment. When you talk of popular franchises, you do expect the sequels nowadays to snatch more earnings.  


It is tough to say what has gone wrong for Star Trek Into Darkness, for its reviews have been great, its Imdb score stands at more than 8 as of now, it had enough publicity to create interest even amongst the non-Trekkies and J.J. Abrams is no small a name in sci-fi movie business. What really seems to have been a bummer for the movie is the heated up month of May with Iron Man 3 still calling out to its followers and The Great Gatsby managing a much better box office score than what would have been expected. It's still not doomsday though and the studio, Paramount Pictures, should make a profit from the Abrams' flick. Star Trek Into Darkness could well turn out to be the biggest movie of the franchise, thanks to the strong openings being seen in foreign markets where it has earned another $80 million already and should easily displace the meek $128 million of its predecessor. C'mon crew, let's push the Enterprise a bit more! 

Iron Man 3 dipped another weekend by 52% and still manages to earn $35 million for its third weekend in North America. Well, that's the power of an Iron Man movie of course! While it may not be reaching that $500 million mark some faithfuls (including me) had been expecting, it still should end up north of $400 million. The Great Gatsby grabbed $23 million for its second weekend and took the third spot, continuing the strong run. Now it is the turn of Fast & Furious 6, The Hangover Part III and Epic to open up this weekend in North America and try to grab a footing in the already crowded market place. Boy, just creating a good movie is no longer enough, is it?

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