Star Trek Warps to the top of the box office; Ice Age disappoints

It is fitting that Star Trek Beyond opened to the top of the box office as this weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the Star Trek Franchise. The third entry in the reboot from J.J. Abrams debuted with $59.6 million, which is lower than its two previous installments (2009's Star Trek opened to $79.6 million while 2013's Into Darkness took $70.2 million). Which lead us to conclude that either this franchise is in decline, at least domestically, or it is just the curse of the sequels/remakes that we have been witnessing so far this year where sequel after sequel or remakes have under-performed (except for Captain America: Civil War & Finding Dory). The film opened internationally in 37 markets and grossed a decent $30 million. With a price tag of of $185 million the film will have a hard time to show some profit and if its numbers at the international front don't emulate those of 'Into Darkness', we might be seeing another box office casualty. We'll see.

In the second spot The Secret life of Pets had a mere 42% drop and claimed the second spot with $29.3 million. The animated film has grossed so far $260 million domestically and clearly hurt the numbers of ​Ice Age: Collision Course which crashed in the fifth spot with $21 million. But don't feel bad for 'Ice Age': that franchise is more profitable overseas than in USA and is currently the most profitable animated franchise ever with $3 billion net grosses. 'Collision Course' opened overseas earlier in July and has grossed so far $178 million.

Spiraling down to the third spot is Ghostbusters which couldn't break a virtual tie with the REAL ghost film Lights Out as both films grossed $21.6 million. The all female cast remake film had a 53% drop and has grossed so far $86.8 million domestically with total worldwide grosses of $120 million which still needs $168 million more to show a profit. Will China rescue it? On the other hand the James Wan produced horror film had a budget of just $5 million so it already has made four times its investment.

Final numbers tomorrow.

 

$59 million? Star Trek Beyond has flopped!

 

The predictions were of $60-$65 million so it came a little bit under expectations, but its pricey $185 budget will put it in the same league as 'The Legend of Tarzan' a movie that is performing well, but its inflated budget is making it difficult to crawl out of the red tape in profits.

BUT Paramount Pictures will not lose much if the film bombs as it was made in partnership with Bad Robot, Skydance, China's Ali Baba Films & Hua Hua pictures. Which means the budget was sliced between all them so even if it flops, it will not be major loss for rewrites.

 

Perhaps the movie could be a big succes in China because of the participation of Chinese firms. Also, Sulu is Chinese and the director has Chinese roots.

 

That could be a factor. Alibaba Pictures (part of the Alibaba group that owns the Asian Amazon rival company) will be heavily promoting the film in China. The problem is that space operas have never resonated in that country (The Force Awakens had so-so numbers there). But Justin Lin's 'Fast & Furious 6' grossed over $360 million in China alone! If "Star Trek Beyond' can make at least $100 million there, it will save the franchise. Less than that, well the next film will be substantially lower budgeted (which will be good IMO as the same thing happened for 'The Wrath of Khan', the lowest budgeted film in the franchise at $11.2 million, and they were forced to concentrate on the PLOT and the CHARACTERS instead of on spectacular sets & jaw dropping special effects).

 

And I want to point out that Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party expanded wide and took the 9th spot with $3.9 million. Not bad for a summer release of a political documentary.

Just saying...