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Mother's Day Box Office Hit: Star Trek

May 11, 2009

Star Trek Flies Back into Future and Box Office History

X-men No. 2

By Keith Williams

HOLLYWOOD, CA (RPRN/HT) 5/11/09 — Boldly going where no Star Trek movie has ever gone before, the new reboot from Lost co-creator J. J. Abrams beamed up an estimated $72.5 million over the weekend ($76.5 million inclusive of Thursday screenings) from 3849 black holes. Left behind in hyperspace, Next Day Air, a brave but doomed attempt to provide counter-programming for anti-trekkies and stoners delivered a less-than-stellar $4 million at 1138 courier services.

With winning performances, nifty set-pieces, spectacular effects, and a fun script that re-introduces us to all the major characters of the Starship Enterprise, this latest addition to the Paramount franchise opened to the biggest grosses of the series, beating the previous record of $30.7 million for 1996’s Star Trek First Contact, and way beyond the desultory $18 million of its predecessor Star Trek Nemesis back in 2002. Reviews have been largely positive, international feedback encouraging (the countries where Star Trek movies tend to do less well), and once again, with this, Cloverfield, Lost, and Mission Impossible III, J. J. Abrams proves himself to be the pop-culture whizz-kid du jour. And yet, something seems to be missing from this new warp-speed adventure, what some might call The Big Picture. Ever since Star Trek first hyperspaced into our lives back in 1966, the myriad TV series and feature outings that followed have always embraced one ideal, to be Big, Bright, and Brave, just like America itself. To Boldly Go was a flag-waver for us all, wherever, however we lived.

The times we now live in are arguably darker than ever before, and a Big Theme like that would have gone a long way to providing a light of hope in the darkness, as well as broaden the appeal of Star Trek into the mainstream. What a wasted opportunity then for the first Star Trek of the Obama era not to acknowledge this and provide us with at least some sort of inspirational speech at the end, like all the other Treks did. If there’s any theme at all in this new voyage, it’s that it’s okay to cheat. Really?

Laser-beamed into second place, X-Men Origins: Wolverine found its nails shortened by 68% to claw $27 million out of the box office ($130 million wolfed up already), Ghosts of Girlfriends Past faded an acceptable 32.2% for $10.4 million, Obsessed saw Ali Larter stalking Idris Elba with a 45.2% decline in interest, bumping 17 Again into no 5 with $4.4 million on an okay 30.7% fall in teen concentration. Weeding its way in at no 6, the afore-mentioned Next Day Air, squeezing just ahead of The Soloist on a less-than-symphonic 36.3% drop-off for $3.6 million, but higher than Monsters vs Aliens now in the last stage of its alien landings with $3.3 million abducted on a 41.8% lack of demand for humans. At no 9, Earth crumbled by 42.7%, seeding $2.4 million, while that nervous warbling you hear is the voice of Hannah Montana just about to exit the top ten with $2.4 million on a 42% slide in wig sales since last week.

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