Paramount Pictures’ highly anticipated Star Trek Into Darkness arrived at the North American box office this past weekend with Captain James Kirk and crew beaming up a solid but unexceptional $84 million during the3 film’s four days of release. The arrival of J.J. Abrams’ latest Trek adventure pushed previous two-time champ Iron Man 3 and Warner’s The Great Gatsby down a notch on the list, yet each continued to rake in the big bucks.
Star Trek Into Darkness was projected to have a bigger opening, especially with the inclusion of IMAX and 3D screens. I’ve published a more in-depth analysis of Trek’s debut here. Additionally, the Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD versions of Star Trek Into Darkness are already available for pre-order.
The return of Kirk and Spock did knock Iron Man 3 down but far from out. Marvel’s first Cinematic Phase 2 flick zipped by the $300 million (domestic) and one billion (global) marks on Thursday and added another $35.2 million to its North American fortunes this weekend. Foreign markets added another $40 million. The domestic total now stands at a towering $337 million with the $400 million milestone within its sights. The film has moved up to the number 25 position on the all-time highest domestic grossers and number nine globally.
Third place went to Warner’s smash hit The Great Gatsby, which has now become the studio’s highest-grossing film of 2013. The Baz Luhurmann version of the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel has successfully worked as counter-programming to the visual effects blockbusters and should continue to do so as it faces little competition over the next few weeks. The film dropped an understandable 51% from its huge opening to earn an estimated $25 million on 3,550 screens in its sophomore round. The Leonardo DiCaprio headliner has earned a great $91.2 million and could wind up with $130 million in domestic sales by the end of its run.
Rounding out the top five were Paramount’s Pain & Gain and Fox/Dreamworks’ The Croods. The Michael Bay-directed feature dropped 38% from last weekend to earn an estimated $3.1 million to bring its four week total to $46.5 million. The prehistoric 3D animated smash lost a mere 23% of its audience from week eight to earn $2.75 million. To date The Croods has earned a great $176.7 million.
The remainder of the top ten is as follows:
6. 42 (Warner Brothers) $2.73 million (-40%); $88.7 million
7. Oblivion (Universal) $2.2 million (-46%); $85.5 million
8. Mud (Roadside Attractions) $2.2 million (-13%); $11 million
9. Peeples (Lionsgate) $2.1 million (-53%); $7.8 million
10. The Big Wedding (Lionsgate) $1.1 million (-54%); $20.1 million
Next weekend sees the arrival of Warner’s The Hangover Part III on Thursday, along with Fox’s animated Epic and Universal’s Fast and Furious 6 on Friday to take advantage of Memorial Day weekend. Fast 6 should have no problem putting the pedal to the box office metal in swiping the pole position away from current champ Star Trek Into Darkness.
– Shawn Fitzgerald
