The J.J. Abrams sequel Star Trek Into Darkness beamed up another solid day at the North American box office on Friday with James Kirk, Spock and the rest of the Enterprise crew plotting a huge opening weekend. Far behind on Friday but still performing exceptionally well are holdovers Iron Man 3 and The Great Gatsby.
On Friday, Star Trek Into Darkness earned $22 million for Paramount Pictures. Tack that on to the $13.5 million it earned on Thursday and the sequel’s domestic box office total now stands at $35 million.
Star Trek Into Darkness figures to pick up some steam headed into the weekend despite its Friday trailing the first Star Trek from J.J. Abrams by $4.9 million. Audience have given the film a solid “A” CinemaScore which usually translates into a bump for Saturday and Sunday business. It is well within reason that Star Trek Into Darkness will cap its opening four-day weekend around the $100 million mark.
Read our Star Trek Into Darkness review
Marvel’s Iron Man 3 starring Robert Downey Jr. landed in second place with $9.5 million on Friday, more than a 50 percent drop than the previous Friday. At $311.4 million domestically and over $1 billion worldwide, Iron Man 3 could be pulled from theaters immediately and still be one of the top 20 grossing films of all-time.
Read our Iron Man 3 review
The Great Gatsby continues to live up to its name by putting up great ticket sales. Its $7.65 million Friday ticket sales takes overall business up to $74.4 million. Look for The Great Gatsby to cross $100 million next week.
Pain & Gain and 42 arrived in fourth and fifth place, respectively, but neither was able to cross $1 million on Friday with the top three films hogging most of the business. Pain & Gain brought in $876,00 while 42 achieved $750,000.
Stop back tomorrow afternoon to see if Star Trek Into Darkness was able to reach $100 million within its first four days of release.
