J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek has begun its chase of X-Men Origins: Wolverine at the box office by beaming up $7 million from Thursday evening showings that began at 7PM.
Star Trek will need to perform strong through Friday-Sunday if it hopes to surpass Wolverine’s $83 million opening. With a 500 screen handicap it will need all the help it can get.
The $7 million opening all but guarantees Star Trek will boldly go where no film in the franchise has been: blockbuster status. Solid total box office takes for previous Trek films have been in the neighborhood of $75 million. Abrams’ reboot could potentially beat every previous Star Trek film’s domestic box office earnings in its opening weekend.
Rotten Tomatoes is still tracking Star Trek at 95% with 195 reviews counted towards the aggregate score. Not even Roger Ebert’s negativism towards Trek seems to have influenced the majority of critics who love the interstellar ride.
If you haven’t read it yet, be sure to check out our Star Trek movie review.
