{"id":255,"date":"2009-05-09T16:52:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-09T16:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/05\/star-trek-at-the-box-office-on-the-charts\/"},"modified":"2009-05-09T16:52:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-09T16:52:00","slug":"star-trek-at-the-box-office-on-the-charts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/05\/star-trek-at-the-box-office-on-the-charts.html","title":{"rendered":"Star Trek — at the box office, on the charts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
There were ten Star Trek<\/a><\/i> films<\/a> before the reboot. Two of them made over $90 million, two of them made less than $60 million, and the rest all made between $70 million and $80 million, roughly speaking.<\/span><\/p>\n

Based on how well the new film<\/a> did yesterday<\/a>, it sounds like the reboot could gross as much as $70 million in its first weekend alone<\/i>. But of course, they\u2019ve been making these films for 30 years now, and ticket prices have gone up, up, up.<\/p>\n

Perhaps, instead of looking at the raw, unadjusted dollar figures, we can get a sense of how well these films have done \u2014 or haven\u2019t done, as the case may be \u2014 by comparing the grosses for each film to those of other<\/i> films that were released in the same year.<\/p>\n

Alas, Box Office Mojo does not have a chart for 1979, the year The Motion Picture<\/a><\/i> came out. (It also does not have yearly charts for the worldwide figures prior to the 1990s.) But that particular film earned $82.3 million in North America, which was better than the next two films did, so presumably it ranked about as high in its year as those two films did in theirs.<\/p>\n

And then there is the rest of the series:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. 1982<\/a>, June 4 \u2014 The Wrath of Khan<\/a><\/i> \u2014 $78.9 million (domestic) \u2014 #6 (domestic)<\/li>\n
  2. 1984<\/a>, June 1 \u2014 The Search for Spock<\/a><\/i> \u2014 $76.5 million (domestic) \u2014 #9 (domestic)<\/li>\n
  3. 1986<\/a>, November 26 \u2014 The Voyage Home<\/a><\/i> \u2014 $109.7 million (domestic) \u2014 #5 (domestic)<\/li>\n
  4. 1989<\/a>, June 9 \u2014 The Final Frontier<\/a><\/i> \u2014 $52.2 million (domestic) \u2014 #25 (domestic)<\/li>\n
  5. 1991<\/a>, December 6 \u2014 The Undiscovered Country<\/a><\/i> \u2014 $74.9 million (domestic) \u2014 #15 (domestic) \u2014 $96.9 million (worldwide<\/a>) \u2014 #14 (worldwide)<\/li>\n
  6. 1994<\/a>, November 18 \u2014 Generations<\/a><\/i> \u2014 $75.7 million (domestic) \u2014 #15 (domestic) \u2014 $118.1 million (worldwide<\/a>) \u2014 #20 (worldwide)<\/li>\n
  7. 1996<\/a>, November 22 \u2014 First Contact<\/a><\/i> \u2014 $92 million (domestic) \u2014 #17 (domestic) \u2014 $146 million (worldwide<\/a>) \u2014 #22 (worldwide)<\/li>\n
  8. 1998<\/a>, December 11 \u2014 Insurrection<\/a><\/i> \u2014 $70.2 million (domestic) \u2014 #28 (domestic) \u2014 $112.6 million (worldwide<\/a>) \u2014 #35 (worldwide)<\/li>\n
  9. 2002<\/a>, December 13 \u2014 Nemesis<\/a><\/i> \u2014 $43.3 million (domestic) \u2014 #54 (domestic) \u2014 $67.3 million (worldwide<\/a>) \u2014 #66 (worldwide)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So while Nemesis<\/i> often gets the blame for killing the franchise, the series had evidently been in gradual decline over the course of the preceding films anyway \u2014 at least where its standing relative to other films of its time is concerned.<\/span><\/p>\n

    It\u2019s fascinating to think that the first four films all ranked in the Top 10 of their respective years, whereas none of the other films did. Presumably this is due, at least in part, to the fact that the first four films were the only films that did not have to compete with brand-new Star Trek<\/i> episodes on TV. Given a choice between new movies and ten- or twenty-year-old re-runs, people chose the movies. But given a choice between new movies and a steady stream of new TV episodes\u2026?<\/p>\n

    As it happens, the new film is the first Star Trek<\/i> film since 1986\u2019s The Voyage Home<\/i> that has not had to compete with an existing TV show. And that earlier film just happens to be the top-grossing movie in the franchise to date \u2014 even after 23 years of movie-ticket price inflation. So if a lack of small-screen competition is key to a Star Trek<\/i> movie\u2019s cultural impact, it\u2019s no wonder the new movie is doing so well.<\/p>\n

    One last thought: If you want to compare actual ticket sales, rather than how each film ranks on an annual chart, we can turn to the average ticket price chart<\/a> at Box Office Mojo and deduce the following \u2014 with the films listed in order from those that sold the most tickets to those that sold the least:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. 1979 \u2014 The Motion Picture<\/i> \u2014 $82,258,456 @ $2.51 per ticket = 32,772,293 tickets<\/li>\n
    2. 1986 \u2014 The Voyage Home<\/i> \u2014 $109,713,132 @ $3.71 per ticket = 29,572,272 tickets<\/li>\n
    3. 1982 \u2014 The Wrath of Khan<\/i> \u2014 $78,912,963 @ $2.94 per ticket = 26,841,143 tickets<\/li>\n
    4. 1984 \u2014 The Search for Spock<\/i> \u2014 $76,471,046 @ $3.36 per ticket = 22,759,239 tickets<\/li>\n
    5. 1996 \u2014 First Contact<\/i> \u2014 $92,027,888 @ $4.42 per ticket = 20,820,789 tickets<\/li>\n
    6. 1994 \u2014 Generations<\/i> \u2014 $75,671,125 @ $4.18 per ticket = 18,103,139 tickets<\/li>\n
    7. 1991 \u2014 The Undiscovered Country<\/i> \u2014 $74,888,996 @ $4.21 per ticket = 17,788,360 tickets<\/li>\n
    8. 1998 \u2014 Insurrection<\/i> \u2014 $70,187,658 @ $4.69 per ticket = 14,965,385 tickets<\/li>\n
    9. 1989 \u2014 The Final Frontier<\/i> \u2014 $52,210,049 @ $3.97 per ticket = 13,141,145 tickets<\/li>\n
    10. 2002 \u2014 Nemesis<\/i> \u2014 $43,254,409 @ $5.81 per ticket = 7,444,820 tickets<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Box Office Mojo says the current<\/i> average ticket price is $7.18, so if the J.J. Abrams movie sold, say, 20,000,000 tickets \u2014 a feat managed by five of the ten previous films \u2014 then the new movie would gross over $143 million, or a little more than double what it is predicted to earn this weekend. And if the new film grossed at least $200 million, that would mean it had sold nearly 28 million tickets, a feat managed by only two of the previous films.<\/span><\/p>\n

      And if the new film were to sell as many tickets as The Motion Picture<\/i> did \u2014 thereby becoming the top ticket-seller of the entire franchise \u2014 it would then have grossed a total of $235.3 million. And that would have been enough to make it the #4 movie of 2008, the #7 movie of 2007, the #4 movie of 2006, and so on.<\/p>\n

      Based on the insanely good word-of-mouth the new film is getting, I\u2019d say that kind of box-office success seems do-able right now.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      There were ten Star Trek films before the reboot. Two of them made over $90 million, two of them made less than $60 million, and the rest all made between $70 million and $80 million, roughly speaking. Based on how well the new film did yesterday, it sounds like the reboot could gross as much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nStar Trek -- at the box office, on the charts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There were ten Star Trek films before the reboot. Two of them made over $90 million, two of them made less than $60 million, and the rest all made between\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/05\/star-trek-at-the-box-office-on-the-charts.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Star Trek -- at the box office, on the charts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There were ten Star Trek films before the reboot. Two of them made over $90 million, two of them made less than $60 million, and the rest all made between\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/05\/star-trek-at-the-box-office-on-the-charts.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-05-09T16:52:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/SgYl-qzeWCI\/AAAAAAAADFU\/g7nHg7TndcE\/s400\/startrek-monopoly.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/05\/star-trek-at-the-box-office-on-the-charts.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/05\/star-trek-at-the-box-office-on-the-charts.html\",\"name\":\"Star Trek -- at the box office, on the charts\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-05-09T16:52:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-05-09T16:52:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\"},\"description\":\"There were ten Star Trek films before the reboot. Two of them made over $90 million, two of them made less than $60 million, and the rest all made between\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/05\/star-trek-at-the-box-office-on-the-charts.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/05\/star-trek-at-the-box-office-on-the-charts.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/05\/star-trek-at-the-box-office-on-the-charts.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Star Trek — at the box office, on the charts\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/\",\"name\":\"FilmChat\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\",\"name\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\"},\"description\":\"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Star Trek -- at the box office, on the charts","description":"There were ten Star Trek films before the reboot. Two of them made over $90 million, two of them made less than $60 million, and the rest all made between","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/05\/star-trek-at-the-box-office-on-the-charts.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Star Trek -- at the box office, on the charts","og_description":"There were ten Star Trek films before the reboot. Two of them made over $90 million, two of them made less than $60 million, and the rest all made between","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/05\/star-trek-at-the-box-office-on-the-charts.html","og_site_name":"FilmChat","article_published_time":"2009-05-09T16:52:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/SgYl-qzeWCI\/AAAAAAAADFU\/g7nHg7TndcE\/s400\/startrek-monopoly.jpg"}],"author":"Peter T. Chattaway","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter T. Chattaway","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/05\/star-trek-at-the-box-office-on-the-charts.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/05\/star-trek-at-the-box-office-on-the-charts.html","name":"Star Trek -- at the box office, on the charts","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-05-09T16:52:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-05-09T16:52:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde"},"description":"There were ten Star Trek films before the reboot. Two of them made over $90 million, two of them made less than $60 million, and the rest all made between","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/05\/star-trek-at-the-box-office-on-the-charts.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/05\/star-trek-at-the-box-office-on-the-charts.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/05\/star-trek-at-the-box-office-on-the-charts.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Star Trek — at the box office, on the charts"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/","name":"FilmChat","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde","name":"Peter T. Chattaway","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Peter T. Chattaway"},"description":"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}