'Star Trek Beyond' Beams Up $59.6M; 'Ice Age 5' Bombs With $21M
By Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter
It was a topsy-turvey weekend at the box office.
Justin Lin’s Star Trek Beyond beamed up a solid $59.6 million from 3,928 theaters, more than enough to win the weekend and marking one of the best openings of summer to date. However, the third chapter in Paramount and Skydance’s rebooted franchise came in 14 percent behind the opening of Star Trek Into Darkness ($70.2 million) as Hollywood battles a bad case of sequelitis. (The 2009 film Star Trek blasted off with an even better $75.2 million.)
Still, 14 percent is a modest drop compared to other films this summer. And it’s nothing compared to Ice Age: Collision Course, which fell off a cliff in its U.S. debut with $21 million from 3,392 theaters — 55 percent behind the 2012 launch of Ice Age: Continental Drift ($46.6 million) and the worst showing for a studio animated tentpole in a decade. The good news: Collision Course, which eked out a fifth-place finish, is a vibrant player overseas, earning $127 million even before it landed in North America.
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Instead, U.S. audiences preferred Universal and Illumination’s animated holdover The Secret Life of Pets, which placed No. 2 in its third weekend with $29.3 million from 4,048 locations for a domestic total of $260.7 million and worldwide haul of $323.7 million (Pets earned another $10 million overseas this weekend from 14 markets.)
Ice Age faced tough going all the way around; Pixar’s Finding Dory placed No. 6 in its sixth weekend with more than $7 million, pushing its domestic total to $460.2 million — the ninth-best showing of all time — and global cume to $781.7 million after earning another $19.5 million overseas from 45 markets.
Elsewhere, New Line and Warner Bros.’ supernatural horror film Lights Out, costing under $5 million to make, came in a pleasing No. 3 behind Star Trek and Pets with a better-than-expected $21.6 million from 2,818 theaters, thanks to a strong turnout among younger moviegoers. A full 37 percent of the audience was under the age of 18, while females made up 54 percent of all ticket buyers.
Produced by James Wan, Lights Out stars Teresa Palmer as a young woman who tries to protect her brother from a malevolent spirit connected to their mother’s past. Overseas, the pic scared up $8.3 million from more than 30 markets for a global bow of $29.9 million.
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Costing a hefty $185 million to make, Star Trek Beyond will need to do strong business overseas. It opened in roughly 46 percent of the marketplace this weekend, including the U.K., Australia, Russia and Germany. It doesn’t land in China until Sept. 2, however.
Nearly 390 Imax theaters, a haven for male moviegoers, turned in a hearty 14 percent of the gross in North America. Overall, males made up 57 percent of the audience, and females 43 percent. In terms of age, 75 percent was over the age of 25.
Lin took over directing duties from J.J. Abrams, who helmed the first two installments in the revived franchise. Simon Pegg wrote the script with Doug Jung, while Abrams’ Bad Robot banner produced the film.
Pegg, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, John Cho and the late Anton Yelchin reprise their roles, while Idris Elba and Sofia Boutella join the franchise. This time out, the crew of the USS Enterprise are stranded on an unknown planet, where they face a new enemy, the ruthless military commander Krall (Elba). The studio has already announced another film planned for the franchise, although a director was not revealed.
In North America, the sci-fi adventure earned generally strong reviews (it shows an 84 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and an A- from audiences.
Conversely, Ice Age: Collision Course was skewered by critics (it sports a dismal 13 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes). It fared better with moviegoers, who gave it a B+. Mike Thurmeier and Galen T. Chu direct the film, which sees the lovable animals Manny, Diego and Sid trying to fend off a meteor strike that would destroy the world.
Elsewhere, conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza’s Hillary Clinton documentary, Hillary Clinton: The Secret History of the Democratic Party, cracked the top 10 in its nationwide expansion, earning a $3.7 million-$3.9 million from 1,217 theaters. The movie’s expansion is timed to the Democratic National Convention, which kicks off Monday in Philadelphia.
Among more limited offerings, Fox Searchlight’s Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, based on the hit British TV series, took in $1.9 million from 313 theaters, thanks to interest among adult females.
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