Final Box Office Numbers

Yesterday I reported the estimated numbers for the weekend box office but now Box Office Mojo has posted the final numbers including the foreign take.

The finalized take increased Star Trek's totals from $76.5 to $79.2 million which exceeds internal Paramount expectations of $50-$60 million. The first weekend breakdown:

Thursday: $4.0M
Friday: $26.89M
Saturday: $27.25M
Sunday: $21.06M
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Total: $79.20M for US
Foreign: $35.5M
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Grand Total: $114.7M

The several million discrepancies indicate that sales on Saturday and Sunday were higher than expected. One problem that may impact the films long term vitality at the box office in face of new competition is the audience make is 60% male, 40% female and 65% was 25 years and older. Personally that sounds like a solid sweet spot for this type of movie but Hollywood still thinks that 25 and under are repeat viewers that create the mega blockbusters. I just think a good popcorn flick combined with excellent word of mouth will do the work regardless of demographics.

Including in those numbers is a new record for IMAX viewings with a weekend take of $8.5 million on 138 screens, surpassing The Dark Knight's $6.5M take. The diagram above is a comparison of the previous Star Trek films opening weekends accounting for inflation from TrekMovie.com. Keep in mind that first weekend totals were not really important until the mid nineties. Before then, longetivity at the box office was what drove a marketing campaign rather than one huge weekend.

One number that isn't that good is the international number which sits at $35.5M but that doesn't include a few key markets such as Japan. For the film to even hope to reach $500 million plus that all studios want for their films, the foreign box office needs to be equal or greater than the domestic totals. However, for foreign markets longetivity is about as important as one huge weekend so it is too early to draw any conclusions about the film's success overseas.

The key factor will be how it holds against the competition with Angels and Demons, Terminator: Salivation and Up. Star Trek will not remain number one but if it can stay in the top five for the next few weeks, its final tally will be even more impressive. Regardless of the final numbers, Paramount has to be pleased as the relaunch of the Star Trek franchise is a complete success.