‘Star Trek Beyond’ Lands $59.6 Million on Opening
“Star Trek Beyond” won the weekend box office, bringing in $59.6 million from 3,928 screens.
Paramount and Skydance’s sci-fi adventure sequel was expected come in at around $60 million for the three-day weekend, setting its opening inside the bullseye of predictions.
Meanwhile, New Line Cinema’s low-budget scary movie “Lights Out” amassed a whopping $21.6 million from 2,818 screens. Made on a production budget of $5 million, the PG-13 thriller ends its three-day opening well ahead of the game .
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The same can’t be said for Fox and Blue Sky’s pricey “Ice Age: Collision Course,” which brought in $21 million from 3,992 screens. Given the film’s $105 million production budget, the animated sequel is on a collision course of its own.
While director Justin Lin‘s expensive $185 million “Star Trek” production has received stellar reviews (now 85 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a favorable 70 Metacritic score), it opened well under the debut of J.J. Abrams‘ last two reboots in the long-running sci-fi franchise.
2009’s “Star Trek” bowed to $75.2 million on a $150 million budget, while 2013’s “Star Trek Into Darkness” opened to $70.2 million on a $190 million budget.
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Lin, who directed four movies in the “Fast & Furious” franchise, took over the mantle from Abrams with this new outing.
“Star Trek Beyond” stars Chris Pine, John Cho, Simon Pegg (who co-wrote the script), Zachary Quinto, Zoë Saldana, Karl Urban, Sofia Boutella and Idris Elba. The film also features one of the last performances of Anton Yelchin — who died tragically in a freak car accident just a month ago.
In the third film in the reboot franchise, which earned an A- from filmgoers surveyed by CinemaScore, the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise find themselves in yet another uncharted area of the universe where they face a new, enigmatic foe (Elba) who tests the most central of their beliefs as dutiful foot soldiers of the Federation.
It had a great opening on 387 IMAX screens, grossing $8.4 million domestically. (“Beyond” also set a new IMAX record for the “Star Trek” franchise overseas, led by the UK and Russia with $3.2 million on 184 screens. The film will continue its international roll out in China, France, Turkey, Japan, and throughout Latin America.)
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20th Century Fox’s “Ice Age: Collision Course” couldn’t even meet the low end of predictions, coming in under initial estimates of $25 million.
Critical reception and bad buzz may have factored into the disappointed results.
The film, the fifth in the series about prehistoric characters voiced by Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Jennifer Lopez, Denis Leary and Queen Latifah, has a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 13 percent and an unfavorable Metacritic score of 33. It earned a middling B+ CinemaScore.
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Horror movie “Lights Out,” distributed by Warner Bros., got off to a great start, surpassing initial weekend estimates of $15 million to finish strong among higher profile holdovers “The Secret Life of Pets” and “Ghostbusters.”
“Lights Out,” which stars Teresa Palmer as a young woman who fights off a spooky entity that has attached itself to her mother (Maria Bello), is already pointed at profitability.
The film has a solid 78 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and a mixed Metascore of 57. It earned a B CinemaScore.
The Top Five
1. “Star Trek Beyond” (Paramount) — $59.6 million in Week 1 ($59.6 million total)
2. “The Secret Life of Pets” (Universal) — $29.3 million in Week 3 ($260.7 million total)
3. “Lights Out” (Warner Bros.) — $21.6 million in Week 1 ($21.6 million total)
4. “Ghostbusters” (Sony) — $21.6 million in Week 2 ($86.9 million total)
5. “Ice Age: Collision Course” (20th Century Fox) — $21 million in Week 1 ($21 million total)
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