Star Trek Into Darkness Drops to 3rd

In its second weekend of release, Star Trek Into Darkness fell out of the top spot to number three behind new releases Fast & Furious 6 and The Hangover Part 3. The drop isn't surprising and actually pretty small relatively speaking with only a 32.7% drop vs the more average drop of 50% or more. The result was a weekend US gross of $47.2 million for a US total of $156M. On the international side, the movie crossed the $100M putting it within striking distance of the first film's $127M international total. Its still to early to see where the final numbers will land but with a worldwide total of $258.1M after around 3 weeks of release, it looks like it might successfully pass the $385M total of the first film and possibly become the first Trek film to cross the $500 million threshold. That climb will be tough as the competition only gets harders with upcoming releases of Man of Steel, After Earth and Monsters University.

Star Trek: Enterprise Season Two Blu-Ray Set Out August 20

StarTrek.com has revealed that the Star Trek: Enterprise Season Two Blu-Ray set will be released on August 20, 2013. The six disc set will have all 26 episodes, deleted scenes, outtakes and several new features. One of the featueres is "In Conversation: The First Crew" for a cast reunion as they discuss filming the series. Another is "Destination Unknown: Uncharted Territory" that looks at the season long Xindi storyline. Below is a trailer for the set.

Everything Wrong with Star Trek Into Darkness FAQ Style

Recently I posted an amusing video title "Everything Wrong with Star Trek in 5 Minutes or Less" that kind of nitpicks at the film (and others in the Everything Wrong series. io9.com has posted their unintentional take, only they did it FAQ style that is just as entertaining to read. However, as the post title states, if chock full of spoilers. It pretty much goes through every single plot point of the film revealing all the details. It also pretty much explains my review of the movie where I believe the film is very entertaining action film but a bad Star Trek story. Now some may call it nitpicking but I don't see anything wrong with wanting an action film to have a great, coherent story. Click here for the spoiler filled FAQ.

The Star Trek Guide at Harvard

Last week Harvard's Houghton Library announced they acquired the "Star Trek Writers Guide", a rare handbook that acted as a kind of bible for Star Trek: The Original Series. The 31 page guide provided an overview of the series along with a few dos and don't for writing the various characters. For example "Never have members of the crew putting things into pockets. There are no pockets." The guide is now part of the library 3000+ collection of trade paperbacks, magazines, and more focused on science fiction. Little facts about the Enterprise from the guide include the crew size (430), warp factor = the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), and more. The idea behind the guide was so that writers, not really familiar with the series, could still write a script for it. More details and examples can be found here.

Star Trek Into Darkness Wins Weekend Box Office

Star Trek Into Darkness won the weekend with a $70.6 million weekend and $84.1 million for first five days in the United States. Its international gross is $80.5M for a total of $164.6M worldwide. The numbers are fantastic for a Star Trek film and average for a summer tent pole movie but oddly enough it is less then what the first movie took in for its first five days of release in the US at $86.7M. Usually summer sequels blow their previous numbers out of the water. As a result the media and Paramount are considering this opening "disappointing". The numbers holding steady really isn't a surprise considering the four year break between movies and May's tentpole heavy schedule. Iron Man 3 probably didn't help as it continues to do very well worldwide, having already passed the $1 billion mark. The smaller then expected opening for STID only means that Paramount will probably do whatever they can to avoid another four year break between movies so pretty much any chance of Abrams directing the next one is likely dead. The overall goal is to outpace the worldwide total of the first film which was $385.7M. I suspect anything close to $500 million will be considered a successful movie and marketing campaign by Paramount so it will be a few months before can pass final judgement.

Star Trek Into Darkness Set Images and Art

Scott Chambliss, production designer for Star Trek Into Darkneses, has posted a 66 picture gallery for the movie. The images are a combination of pre-production designs, set builds and already released publicity images. Worth checking out to see the cool sets built for the movie and get an idea of how many were expanded using CGI. You can find the gallery here.

Star Trek Into Darkness Spoiler Free Review

Star Trek Into Darkness is a very entertaining action movie. That does not mean it’s a great Star Trek story. The film is epic in scale in a way that none of the previous Trek films or TV series had the budget to achieve and Abrams takes full advantage with large action pieces, fantastic beauty shots of the Enterprise, and complicated action sequences. It is just a shame that a little less time was spent on the unrelenting action and more on the plot and character development.

The story of Into Darkness is really pretty simple story of revenge that attempts to seem more complicated than it really is by throwing in references to crew as family and trying to protect that family. After a quick action sequence that involves James Kirk (Chris Pine) revealing the existence of flying ships (in a gorgeous Enterprise rising from water sequence) to a civilization that had not yet invented the wheel. Kirk gets demoted from Captain to the Academy (so cadet?). It really doesn't matter because John Harrison (acting master Benedict Cumberbatch) chooses to attack but after a Harrison attack takes someone close to Kirk, all is restored as if the demotion had not occurred. Kirk, now seeking revenge while simultaneous trying to be a better listener Captain, goes after Harrison. Another action sequence follows to establish the strength of Harrison, some exposition explaining that Harrison is also trying to protect his crew the same way Kirk is. Eventually the two join together to stop another bad guy as events return to Earth.

Into The Music of Star Trek Into Darkness

Below is a very short video about the score of Star Trek Into Darkness as composer Michael Giacchino discusses the differences in approach between this film and the previous one.

IDW August 2013 Star Trek Comics

IDW Publishing has released their publishing plans for August 2013. There is one comic and two trades are coming out. Not sure what IDW is planning for the future of the franchise but doesn't seem much. For the full details of IDW's other books including GI Joe, TMNT, Transformers, Locke & Key and more click here.

Star Trek Into Darkness Out Now, Reviews

As of 8PM EST, Star Trek Into Darkness is officially released in North America with IMAX and 3D early screenings followed by midnight showings (which I am going too).Rotten Tomatoes is reporting a solid 87% of positive reviews for the movies from critics, a figure that is not easy to get. The audience grade hasn't been tabulated yet. Below are snippets from a few of the reviews to highlight what critics are saying, useful if on the fence about spending the money to go see it. I hope to have my review up tomorrow.

Dark Horizons

"Star Trek Into Darkness" is a very difficult film to review because so much of the film, and its criticisms, depends on one being aware of certain spoilers. I won't go into any major plot details, but I can say that the reveals should result in some quite strong reactions - especially amongst long-term Trek fans. ...the story never really forms a cohesive whole, the thrill ride elements taking precedence and often interrupting the flow rather than sitting comfortably within it. ...the final mano-e-mano fight scene feels like an anticlimax, leaving you wondering if there's a whole third act that was excised at the last minute. ...So many of the 'surprises' of the film only register if you know the earlier work, and if you do - the 'surprises' aren't a surprise. An attempt is made to keep things fresh by taking existing major moments and subjecting them to 'reversals'.

Three New TV Spots for Star Trek Into Darkness

Below are three new TV spots for Star Trek Into Darkness that emphasizes the solid reviews and bigger action pieces of the movie.

Star Trek Into Darkness US Premiere Galleries

Tuesday night was the US premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness that was held in Hollywood, California. Most of the cast was there (except Benedict Cumberbatch who is doing Sherlock I think). Star Trek cast from movies past that showed up included Leonard Nimoy, Levar Burton, and Jennifer Morrison. To view pictures from the event click here and here.

More Star Trek Into Darkness Cast Interviews

Star Trek Into Darkness has premiered in North America but that doesn't mean the marketing campaign stops. In an interview with Collider, STID producer Bryan Burk discussed editing the film, screening the film while maintaining secrecy, easter eggs and a whole lot more including other Bad Robot projects like the various TV shows from this season and next. Simon Pegg remains the example on how to do interesting interviews as he seems to just cause interviewees to ask better questions rather then the generic ones Pine and the rest tend to get. In his interview with Collider, he was in a blunt mood as he talked about maintaining film secrecy, his dislike of people dinging Abrams about his lens flares, and talked provided a few behind the scene antedotes. As for Karl Urban, he talks about trying to add more to McCoy then just sarcasm, film themes, the costumes and more. Alice Eve discusses how her character has a British accent, deleted scene and more. The links to the interviews are below.

Bryan Burk (Collider)
Simon Pegg (Collider)
Damon Lindelof (Collider)
Karl Urban (io9)
Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto (TrekMovie)
Karl Urban and Simon Pegg (TrekMovie)
Alice Eve (TrekMovie)
JJ Abrams (TrekMovie)

Saldana, Pegg Interviews, Movie Stills and Featurette

Star Trek Into Darkness is now less then a day away from release in the US. The marketing campaign continues. Collider has posted their Zoe Saldana interview from the London premiere here. She spoke about the set jokers, that learning Klingon was harder then Na'vi (from Avatar), and few other things.

Simon Pegg was interview by i09.com and as seem to be the case with him, the interviews seem more details (and somewhat spoilerish) and open then with the other actors. Its like his inner geek causes the interviews to geek out more instead of the often generic nothing questions the others get. In his interview he goes from talking about his "futuristic leisure suit", to talking about some of the Trek nods in the film, the motivation of Scotty pushing Kirk, how movie explores Kirk's too quick promotion, the utopian future of Trek, and Scotty's friend Keenser. That interview can be found here.

JJ Abrams on The Daily Show

Last night Star Trek Into Darkness director JJ Abrams was the guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that was pretty entertaining. Abrams himself said the same stuff he has been saying for months (or really 5 years) about Star Trek but the joking nature of the interview made it interesting. In the extended edition of the interview (filmed after the "show" segment was done) is more relaxed as they talk about the film making process as Stewart is spending the summer about to direct his first film. Both videos are below.

Star Trek Cast and NASA Astronauts Live

To help promote Thursday release of Star Trek Into Darkness, NASA and the movie cast will do a live Google+ hangout to talk about the movie, space exploration and answer fan questions on Thursday, May 16th from 9:00AM to 9:45AM PST. Director JJ Abrams, writer Damon Lindelof, and actors Chris Pine, John Cho and Alice Eve will be participating. The full details are below.

A GOOGLE+ HANGOUT IN SPACE: “STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS” DIRECTOR J.J. ABRAMS, WRITER AND PRODUCER DAMON LINDELOF AND STARS JOIN NASA ASTRONAUTS AND THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

In this live Google+ Hangout, NASA astronauts will connect with “STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS” director J.J. Abrams, writer and producer Damon Lindelof, and stars Chris Pine, John Cho and Alice Eve to discuss the emerging intersection between the fiction of Star Trek and the reality of NASA’s current programs.

Star Trek Into Darkness Score Tease

From AICN, here is about a 70 second listen to some of the music from Star Trek Into Darkness score which will be released on May 28th. You can pre-order it now at Amazon and iTunes.

Star Trek Into Darkness Talk Show Circuit Videos

Since Star Trek Into Darkness is just days from its US premiere on Thursday, the cast has been making the talk show circuit starting early last week with appearances on the Jimmys' Shows, Today Show and others. Tomorrow will be the US premiere of the movie in Hollywood so that should result in more mini-interviews from the red carpet. To watch videos and the casts upcoming schedule head over to TrekMovie.com.

Star Trek Into Darkness Opens Strong in Europe

The Hollywood Reporter indicates that Star Trek Into Darkness has opened strong in Europe with a $31.7 million weekend, breaking several franchise records (which really isn't saying much). While Star Trek does have a fervent fan following over its nearly 50 years, its penetration into other countries has been lukewarm at best. As a result the Into Darkness marketing campaign targeted international markets to try and boost the franchises popularity around the world. This included the world premiere in Australia with country premieres in each country before the US one. It seems the result paid off as the opening in UK, Australia and Germany is 56% ahead of the 2009 opening and in Mexico, New Zealand, and Switzerland it is 250% ahead. While $31.7M doesn't seem like much compared to most US weekend openings, this first weekend grosses is higher then the entire international total of Star Trek: Nemesis. Paramount's goal is for Star Trek Into Darkness to exceed the $128 million international take of 2009's Star Trek and of course destroy the $385.6 million worldwide take of the last film.

The unspoken goal is to achieve that around 30% US/70% international box office ratio that seems to mark a true world wide blockbuster. By this I mean if a movie takes $1 billion (for easy math) in worldwide grosses, generally speaking $700M came from international sales, $300M came from US sales. Even reaching a 50-50 ratio would be considered an achievement for Star Trek considering the franchise's overall movie history. As for those asking "why do we care about box office dollars?" those numbers dictate not only will there be a sequel but how much of a budget the next movie will get, the marketing support it will get and may inform any decision to create a new television series since most TV shows are now regularly sold overseas.

Star Trek Into Darkness opens in the US on May 16th and continues to roll out internationally for the new few weeks.

New Volcano Clip, McCoy Profile for STID

Below are two more videos promoting Star Trek Into Darkness. The first is a new clip that shows Spock entering the red planet's volcano core while the second is a character profile of McCoy.

Pegg On Filming STID

It took a while but finally have a somewhat interesting interview for Star Trek Into Darkness. Simon Pegg actually says stuff of substance. None of it spoiler but much more then the vague nothings the cast has been perfecting for the last few months and just repeating in 25 different ways. To be fair, most media reporters tend to ask the same 10 questions cause their knowledge on any given subject wouldn't fill an index card. Any case in this interview from io9, Pegg talks about taking antigravity on set, filming at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, the cast as the "Mirror Universe", and about a deleted scene that was one of the first filmed for the movie. Highlights below, full write-up is here.

Highlights

Four New TV Spots for Star Trek Into Darkness

The TV spots continue for Star Trek Into Darkness with four more for your viewing pleasure. In addition is a mini-featurette as JJ Abrams describes his vision and two new images from the movie have been released by Paramount. If interested, you can find a gallery of pictures from the Mexico City premiere of the movie here and here. The US one is set for next Tuesday.

The Spocks Amusing Audi Commercial

A new commercial released by Audi focuses on Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy who both are forever known as Spock. The amusing video plays off the Spock background along with a few antedotes from Nimoy's past like his Big Bad Bilbo song. Worth a few for any Trek fan.

Sulu and Marcus Characters Videos, 4 German TV Spots for STID

Today brings us six new videos to promote Star Trek Into Darkness. The first two are brief character profiles of Sulu (John Cho) and Dr. Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) as the actors and JJ Abrams comment on the characters. After that are four 10 second long German TV spots that have a few quick new scenes.

Star Trek Magazine Interview Highlights, Klingon War for Third Film?

The latest issue of Star Trek Magazine is out and as to be expected, its all about Star Trek Into Darkness. Below are highlights from interviews with JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof as they discuss the film. In a seperate interview with Hey U Guys, Damon also suggested that may the next film might have more Klingons as "this film we've given the audience a little taste, but there's also a promise that there's a larger conflict on the horizon, and that would be fun to see." He also was game for a slight crossover with The Next Generation by suggesting he wouldn't mind exploring "iconic adversaries from The Next Generation ...maybe baby Picard could be born." Keep in mind this is him just spit balling ideas as way to early for anything related to the third film to be in place. At this point Paramount doesn't even know if there will be a third film until they get the box office results with this weekend (Europe) and next weekend's (NA) premieres.

Honest Trailer, Everything Wrong With Star Trek

With this week's release of Star Trek Into Darkness in Europe, humor channels Screen Junkies and Cinema Sins decided to post their take on the first Star Trek film. The idea is a humorous (if accurate) take on the story and execution mistakes that were made.

Early IMAX Tickets Sell Out, Star Trek Officially Opening Day Early

I mentioned this last week, but now its official - Star Trek Into Darkness is opening on Thursday, May 16 instead of Friday. The decision was already communicated to theaters last Wednesday but for some reason Paramount waited until today to make the announcement. I guess they wanted to goose the PR press by using the early Wednesday 8:00pm IMAX sellouts to make people more curious about seeing the film early. Any case press release below, check your local theater to see what the times are for next week.

New TV Spot, Two Behind the Scenes B-Roll For Star Trek Into Darkness

Three more videos for your enjoyment as the North America premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness is just days away from its European release. The first is the latest TV spot and the next two are B-roll footage as Abrams and the cast filmed certain parts of the movie. The B-roll is literally just a guy on set filming them at work.

Star Trek Writers Talk Star Trek Into Darkness

The promotional campaign for Star Trek Into Darkness continues as Paramount is likely to do everything they can to try to take the weekend box office from Iron Man 3 in Europe this coming weekend. Quite the challenge considering the movies $175M US opening, $680M total already. In this post its a look as the writers of Star Trek Into Darkness spoke with TrekMovie.com about the film along with an interview with Karl Urban. Links and highlights below. A final bit is a video as JJ Abrams compares starting work on Star Wars with Star Trek. No information of any real kind is said.

Damon Lindelof Interview
- Unless cloning technology exists, "it is going to be tough" for Abrams to direct ST3.
- Hopes to work on the next feel as "care too deeply for Trek to step away."
- A replacement director would need a "passion for Trek" and a "vision for what comes next."

Star Trek Into Darkness Score List, Release Date

Michael Giacchino has revealed the track list for the Star Trek Into Darkness score that will be released on May 14th and already available for pre-order on Amazon. If you head to his official site, you can click each track title to listen to a short sample of each. Below is the track list which is pretty much spoiler free unless you have some how managed to avoid all trailers and TV spots.

1) Logos - Pranking The Natives (3:01)
2) Spock Drops, Kirk Jumps (1:43)
3) Sub Prime Directive (2:23)
4) London Calling (2:09)
5) Meld-merized (2:40)
6) The Kronos Wartet (5:25)
7) Brigadoom (3:41)
8) Ship To Ship (2:50)
9) Earthbound And Down (2:37)
10) Warp Core Values (2:56)
11) Buying The Space Farm (3:17)
12) The San Fran Hustle (5:00)
13) Kirk Enterprises (3:00)
14) Star Trek Main Theme (3:25)
Total time: 44:07

Three New TV Spots, Uhura Profile for Star Trek Into Darkness

Another day, another set of videos for Star Trek Into Darkness. This crop is three TV spots and a video profile on Uhura with Zoe Saldana. A few new scenes but mostly stuff seen before. Screenshots of the new scenes can be found here.

Star Trek Into Darkness London Premiere Pictures, Video

Yesterday was the London premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness. The movie is now officially out in most of Europe. Next Tuesday is the US premiere party and then the next evening the movie will begin unreeling in theaters in North America. On hand for the London premiere was almost the entire cast except for John Cho. If you are interested in gallery from the day, you can find it here and here. As for the red white carpet press interviews, it is the usual sales "see this movie" pitches but if interested more can be found here.

New STID Clip, 3D Trailer, NA Release Moved A Day

Two more videos to promote the upcoming release of Star Trek Into Darkness. The movie has started to open in various parts of Europe with more this Friday while the North American release has been moved up a full day to May 16 with midnight screenings. The change is likely because the "fan" screenings for IMAX and 3D showings start May 15th around 8pm so theaters probably pushed to go ahead with midnight showings since have the staff on hand anyway for those early screenings. Any case below is a new clip between Kirk and Uhura in a turbolift. After that is the 3D version of the third trailer for the movie but it does required 3D glasses to enjoy it.

First Look at Star Trek 2.0 Klingons and Scotty Clip

Two more videos to promote the upcoming release of Star Trek Into Darkness. The first is a "Message From John Harrison" that focuses on Uhura. The video itself is notable because it finally provides a look at what the Star Trek 2.0 Klingon looks like without his mask. The result...reminds me of the Enemy Mine alien for some reason. The second video is a brief clip of Scotty and Kirk rushing to engineering as the Enterprise is literally falling apart while rotating in space.

4th Clip, 3 TV Spots, 2 Featurettes, and 1 Poster for Star Trek Into Darkness

Star Trek Into Darkness is just days away from its Europe premiere and 10 days from the North America premiere. That means lots of videos. The latest is a new clip that introduces Carol Marcus, three new TV spots with new scenes, features and a poster. The 1st feature is mostly a sales pitch from JJ Abrams while the other one focuses on Scotty with Simon Pegg talking about the character and the movie. As for the poster, it features the enormous USS Vengeance as it attempts to destroy the Enterprise. For a spot-by-shot breakdown of each TV spot hit the links - Reputation, Vendetta and World.