No matter how you look at it, the new “Star Trek” is a hit. And while an opening weekend of $76 million isn’t shabby, it now appears the film made $3 million more than originally estimated. The upturn in box-office revenue came Sunday afternoon with families turning out to see the reboot of the classic series crew.
Paramount initially reported the film took in just over $76 million in its first four days, but bumped it up to just over $79 million yesterday. The studio said traffic was strong on Mother’s Day, grossing $21 million Sunday instead of the originally estimated $18 million.
The movie defied a Hollywood trend for “fan-driven” films, which tend to have large box-office takes on Fridya and Saturday before falling a bit on Sunday. Paramount credits good word of mouth for keeping sustained levels of ticket sales for the film across the entire weekend.
The film also took in $36 million in worldwide box-office for its debut weekend. That take could have been more but the film has been delayed in Mexico due to an outbreak of the swine flu. Paramount announced yesterday the movie will open in Mexico on June 5.
Paramount also announced that cable outlet FX has picked up the rights to air the movie, starting in 2011.
Ok, I am not saying this to point out a typo in the article, but when I read that the movie did $3 more than reported, I was laughing so hard.
When I got to the 2nd paragraph and realized it was $3 million, then I thought, Ok that make more sense.
LOL.
I liked the new Star Trek movie alot. In fact I enjoyed it more than the new X-men movie.
However, I have one problem with the movie. I know that as sci fi fans we’re supposed to walk in with an open mind, willing to accept anything sort of mind set but some things in this movie were a little too hard for me to swallow.
Let’s look at the way Kirk came to be in command of the Enterprise. If I understood the movie correctly, he was a cadet at Starfleet Academy, snuck his way onto the Enterprise, and in less than 48 hours assumed command of the capital ship in the fleet. Huh? How is that possible? What happened to all of the other mid-grade officers who must surely have been assigned to the ship as well?
They glossed over that little fact because Captain Pike, as one of his last orders before leaving the ship, promoted Kirk to 1st officer. That put him in line for the Big Chair ™. Silly, I know, but there ya go.
Actually, not as silly as one might think. In the real armed forces, during combat situations, a commander can even make an NCO or private the commanding officer should something happen to him/her during a mission. The new rank holds even after the mission is complete. In the old days these were called “battlefield commissions”.
In the film one must make allowances for the passage of time. It must be assumed that Kirk was in his last year (he did it in 3 as promised) because he had already taken the Kobiashi Maru test for a third time. This test is only given to 4th year cadets soon to be graduated and sent on their first non-cadet assignments. Spock had already reached the rank of Commander by this time as well. And, Captain Pike had been promoted to Admiral and had time enough to heal from his wounds inflicted by the torture put on him by Nero, even though he was still in a wheel chair. I have no doubt that, besides Kirk’s stupendous effort during the Nero campaign, that Admiral Pike had a great deal to with Kirk getting his commission as Captain of the Enterprise, which was still somewhat in keeping with the fact that Kirk (until the coming of Picard) was the youngest Starfleet officer to ever be given that rank and put in charge of the Fleet’s Flag ship.
In the old timeline Kirk did serve on a couple of vessels after graduating and before becoming Captain of the Enterprise, but also Pike was still a Captain and uninjured at that time he relinquished command of the Enterprise to a 30-something Kirk. In this new timeline Kirk is even younger (a 20-something) making him now the youngest Captain in Starfleet history, a feat that Picard probably won’t break in the next 80 years to follow. Of course, that is assuming there will be a Captain Picard in this new timeline.
Battlefield Commissions happen all the time. So I can only echo what Mr Sam said above. I liked the movie, it took some liberties sure, but over all was good. And I hate J J Abrams, so that is a high praise coming from me.
Tim
Wasn’t it strongly implied in the novels that the Preservers were involved behind the scenes on a lot of the Federation’s decisions, including Kirk getting the Enterprise?
True battlefield commissions happened all the time during war. I believe that one of the former commandants of the marine corps was a battlefield commission. But battlefield commissions typically happen when there isn’t anyone else due to casualties. As I saw the movie, there were no mass casualties aboard the Enterprise that could have wiped out all of the mid-grade officers between Capt Pike and Kirk. It’s possible for a commanding officer to skip one more senior officer for a more junior one, he/she wouldn’t do it for an inexperienced ensign just 48 hours out of the academy.