“Star Trek” rakes in $3 million more than anticipated
Staff Reports
J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” ticket sales were substantially higher than initial estimates, with the movie grossing $79.2 million over the three day period, earning almost an extra $3 million.
Initially, the well-reviewed adventure was expected to bring in $18.3 million on Sunday, but ended up grossing $21 million. Better than expected family attendance was credited with the upsurge.
“The spike over our initial estimates on Mother’s Day demonstrates that the combination of strong reviews and solid word-of-mouth contributed to better than anticipated attendance by families yesterday, confirming our belief that ‘Star Trek’ has a broad, multi-generational appeal,” said Rob Moore, Vice-Chairman of Paramount Pictures.
The film is directed by J.J. Abrams who helmed the movie “Mission Impossible III” and created the television shows, “Lost” and “Alias”.
Paramount Pictures also announced that “Star Trek: The IMAX Experience,” shattered virtually every opening weekend IMAX box office record, posting $8.5 million from 138 IMAX theatres domestically.
The limited IMAX run registered a per screen average of approximately $62,000 for the weekend, marking the highest grossing Friday, Saturday and Sunday ever for an IMAX opening. IMAX’s domestic opening contributed 11% of the hit film’s overall domestic box office gross of $79.2 million on less than 2% of the screens.
The IMAX release also broke records internationally, generating more than $1.1 million from 25 IMAX screens, for a per screen average of $44,000, bringing the worldwide IMAX box office to $9.6 million.
“This weekend demonstrates that, regardless of whether a film is in 2D or 3D, the power of The IMAX Experience continues to drive audiences at record levels to IMAX theatres worldwide,” said Greg Foster, Chairman and President of IMAX Filmed Entertainment. “Paramount Pictures really understands the power of bringing two great brands together, especially with a visionary director like J.J. Abrams, who had the foresight to recognize that IMAX and Star Trek are a perfect match. He has created an amazing film that perfectly aligns The IMAX Experience with Star Trek fans in addition to a much wider audience that reaches beyond devoted Trekkies.”
