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ox office analysis<br />
Star trek: The $1 billion franchise<br />
TOTAL<br />
domestic gross<br />
adjusted for<br />
today’s ticket prices<br />
1979 Star Trek: The Motion Picture $82,258,456 $266,424,148<br />
1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan $78,912,963 $214,729,151<br />
1984 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock $76,471,046 $182,073,919<br />
1986 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home $109,713,132 $236,578,182<br />
1989 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier $52,210,049 $104,681,802<br />
1991 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country $74,888,996 $142,306,880<br />
1994 Star Trek: Generations $75,671,125 $148,374,754<br />
1996 Star Trek: First Contact $92,027,888 $166,620,611<br />
1998 Star Trek: Insurrection $70,187,658 $119,723,084<br />
2002 Star Trek: Nemesis $43,254,409 $59,661,253<br />
2009 Star Trek $257,730,019 $274,912,020<br />
<strong>2013</strong> Star Trek Into Darkness $346,000,000 (projected)<br />
critics and excellent filmgoer word of mouth. It stole the thunder from<br />
<strong>May</strong> opener X-Men Origins: Wolverine—along with every other movie<br />
that came out that month—on its way to becoming the seventh-highest-grossing<br />
film of 2009.<br />
A sequel was inevitable, but Abrams didn’t want to rush things.<br />
Instead, he next wrote and helmed 2010’s Super 8—a smaller scale<br />
homage to Steven Spielberg’s 1980s-era classic sci-fi flicks. That film<br />
was also a strong performer thanks to word of mouth.<br />
But Trek fans were itching. It’s common for a franchise to take two<br />
or three years in between installments, but it’s rare for a four-year gap to<br />
occur. Will that matter in the long run? Should Paramount, Abrams, and<br />
company have struck a little sooner when the iron was hottest?<br />
<strong>Pro</strong>bably not. Online buzz for Star Trek Into Darkness has been<br />
consistently strong for the past few months as the sequel proves to be<br />
among the year’s most anticipated flicks. Granted, the online audience<br />
is part of Trek’s bread and butter, but the consistency indicates some<br />
significant mainstream interest as well. In other words, buzz is even<br />
higher now than it was at the same point four years ago.<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>2013</strong>’s schedule may prove to be more difficult, though.<br />
First and foremost, Iron Man 3 kicks off the summer season when it<br />
opens <strong>May</strong> 3. Regardless of that film’s ultimate reception, it’s guaranteed<br />
to put a bigger ding in the market than Wolverine did four years<br />
ago. Still, the two-week space between Iron Man 3 and Into Darkness<br />
should be enough time for audiences to get their fill of the latest<br />
Marvel sequel. They’ll be ready for the next big summer offering come<br />
<strong>May</strong> 17—when Star Trek Into Darkness is the only new wide release in<br />
North America.<br />
Adding 3D and native Imax footage to its arsenal, Into Darkness has<br />
significant advantages over its predecessor’s financial potential. At the<br />
time of this article’s publishing, we at BoxOffice.com are forecasting<br />
a $128 million opening weekend for the sequel. By comparison, the<br />
2009 entry debuted to $75.2 million (or close to $90 million when<br />
adjusting for inflation and 3D surcharges). It goes without saying that<br />
a sequel to a highly regarded movie should expectedly deliver a much<br />
bigger audience upfront.<br />
At that point, word of mouth and the quality of the product will<br />
take over. Abrams is famous (some say “infamous”) for holding back<br />
as much of his plots as possible. He and his team have taken that to<br />
new heights so far with this film. Some of the movie’s secrets will likely<br />
begin to leak online during the final days before release, but the effort<br />
so far has to be commended. (Fans still speculate whether or not Benedict<br />
Cumberbatch’s lead baddie John Harrison is really the character’s<br />
name or not.)<br />
Worth nothing is that Memorial Day weekend takes place during<br />
the movie’s second weekend. That strategy intentionally mimics that of<br />
past <strong>May</strong> releases like the Star Wars prequels, which used the calendar<br />
to a great deal of success. This year, however, the competition packs a<br />
big punch. Opening on <strong>May</strong> 24 are Fast & Furious 6 and The Hangover<br />
Part III. Audiences will have a lot to choose from, but ultimately if<br />
word of mouth is solid for Trek, then it should still be the box office<br />
favorite among those three films.<br />
As of March 23, the BoxOffice.com team is predicting a $346 million<br />
domestic haul for Star Trek Into Darkness. Even when considering<br />
inflation and 3D price boosts, that would represent the most tickets<br />
sold by any movie in the franchise (topping 2009’s entry). That kind of<br />
figure, when applied to Trek, would have been laughed at five years ago.<br />
The status quo has changed now. J.J. Abrams has transformed Star<br />
Trek into a widely appealing brand. Moreover, interest is still budding<br />
over his decision to next helm Star Wars: Episode VII—meaning general<br />
audiences could follow the lead of genre fans and turn out partly<br />
through curiosity in seeing what he’s done with his latest blockbuster.<br />
Either way, where Star Trek entered <strong>May</strong> 2009 as the underdog, there’s<br />
no mistaking Star Trek Into Darkness as one of the heavyweight box<br />
office contenders for the summer of <strong>2013</strong>.<br />
46 BoxOffice ® <strong>Pro</strong> The Business of Movies may <strong>2013</strong>
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