Articles

May 17, 2013
 

THURSDAY BOXOFFICE: “Star Trek” Doesn’t Go So Boldly

 

The Hollywood Reporter has the Thursday boxoffice for STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS (Paramount) at $13.5M, which given the strong reviews and general hype would be a tad disappointing.  Comparisons with the 2009 Star Trek are tricky, because that opened on Thursday night/Friday rather than Wednesday night/Thursday (Star Trek had a $30.9M opening for its first 30 or so hours).  But if the $13.5M figure holds, that wouldn’t be much higher than the recent $10.5M Thursday opening of G.I. Joe: Retaliation, a much lower-profile picture.  G.I. Joe‘s 4-day multiple got it to $51M opening weekend, and if the same multiple applied to Darkness, it would only get to around $65M in its first 4 days, which would be considered a major disappointment (Star Trek made $79.2M in 3 days).  But Darkness is a much better (and bigger) movie than Retaliation, so we’ll see.

Number to watch:  Retaliation went up 46% from its opening Thursday to Friday.  Darkness will want to do more than keep pace with that, if it’s to catch up over the weekend.



About the Author

Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."