There have been two constants in Paramount‘s rebooted “Star Trek” series: As the domestic total for each film has gone down, the international tally has increased. And it looks like that will be the same for “Star Trek Beyond,” which flew into first place this weekend, but with numbers that show North American audiences are perhaps not so invested in the franchise.
READ MORE: ‘Star Trek’ Never Goes Beyond Its Familiar Orbit, But Entertains Nonetheless [Review]
Rebounding from J.J. Abrams‘ “Star Trek Into Darkness,” with Justin Lin in the director’s chair, and a storyline that more or less sidesteps whatever happened in the second movie, the well-received film still only managed to pull in $59.6 million. That’s slightly under the $60 million ballpark Paramount had projected, but well below the $75 million and $70 million openings of “Star Trek” and “Star Trek Into Darkness,” respectively. With a budget of $185 million, Paramount will definitely will be looking abroad to take up the slack, and “Star Trek Beyond” hauled in $30 million more from 37 markets. With “Star Trek 4” announced, and with the added starpower of Chris Hemsworth in the mix, the studio is effectively saying the series is here to stay. But whether or not audiences want it, at least in North America, is the ultimate question.
Even if their superhero movie slate is a bit uncertain at the moment, Warner Bros. knows horror, and this summer they already have a hit on their hands with “The Conjuring 2.” Now they’ve got another with the low-budget “Lights Out” doing an impressive $21.6 million to land in fourth place. The microbudget film cost less than $5 million, and featured no big-name stars, but clearly the marketing was effective, and audiences were eager for more scares. On top of the success of Universal‘s “The Purge: Election Year,” it has been a surprisingly good summer for horror.
READ MORE: ‘Lights Out’ Finds Genuine Scares In The Dark [Review]
Bucking the trend laid out by “Zootopia,” “Finding Dory,” and “The Secret Life Of Pets” that animation was the name of the blockbuster game this year, 20th Century Fox saw their “Ice Age” franchise come tumbling down hard, with “Ice Age: Continental Drift” opening to a very disappointing $21 million. That’s at least $20 million off the mark of the opening of any other entry in the series, and seems to indicate that after five movies, “Ice Age” should maybe go back in the fridge.
Experiencing the biggest audience drop in the top ten was Sony‘s “Ghostbusters,” which saw a -53% falloff, and took in $21.6 million, much like “Lights Out.” But it was also playing on 1,000 more screens. Meanwhile, Dinesh D’Souza and Bruce Schooley‘s “Hillary’s America: The Secret History Of The Democratic Party” managed to land in the top ten with $3.7 million. These are quite the times we are living in….
Lastly, in limited release, Mike Birbiglia‘s “Don’t Think Twice” wowed, taking in $90,126 on a single screen, earning it the best per screen average of any movie so far this year, besting the $71,000 PSA for Woody Allen‘s “Café Society” (which opened on five screens its first weekend).
1. “Star Trek Beyond” — $59.6 million
2. “The Secret Life Of Pets” — $29.3 million ($260.7 mil.)
3. “Ghostbusters” — $21.6 million ($86.8 mil.)
4. “Lights Out” — $21.6 million
5. “Ice Age: Collision Course” — $21 million
6. “Finding Dory” — $7.2 million ($460.1 mil.)
7. “The Legend Of Tarzan” — $6.4 million ($115.8 mil.)
8. “Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates” — $4.4 million ($40.3 mil.)
9. “Hillary’s America: The Secret History Of The Democratic Party” — $3.7 million
10. “The Infiltrator” — $3.2 million ($12.2 mil.)