Weekend Fix: Star Trek Prospers With $76.5 Million On Opening Weekend! Will It Live Long?

UPDATE #3: WHAT?! This post has 22 comments?! That's AWESOME! Keep 'em coming! I finally got the Weekend Fix posted, so I hope you enjoy!
UPDATE #3.5: Okay, Weekend Actuals just came in, and Star Trek exceeded expectations even more! Craziness! - Grady

Weekend figures just arrived, and Star Trek's weekend gross is a sweet $75.2 million! ($79.2 million including Thursday!) On Saturday, Star Trek pulled in another $27.2 million, a 1% increase from Friday. Clearly, this film is reaching a much larger audience than just the old Trekkies. Otherwise, we would have seen a fanboy-style dip on Saturday. The Sunday drop to $21 million was quite good, as well, and it shows that good Friday and Saturday word-of-mouth prevented any dip due to Mother's Day. It appears that Paramount's advertising got its job done, and audiences are connecting with the raved-about reboot. Also, you should know that in the confusing shuffle of whether or not to count the Thursday showings in the weekend gross of Star Trek, it looks like the accepted figure is that Star Trek made $4 million during Thursday showings. I suppose that the other $3 million earned on Thursday were from showimtes close enough to midnight that they're just being counted as Friday shows. This is how the weekend looked:

Thursday: $4 million
Friday: $26.9 million
Saturday: $27.2 million (+1.3%)
Sunday: $21.1 million (-22%)
TOTAL: $79.2 million

Bravo, J.J. Abrams! You've successfully brought the franchise back to life! Indeed, with a sizzling $21,190 venue average over the three day weekend, 95% positive reviews, and an amazing $79.2 million over three and a half days, look for Star Trek to stick around for weeks to come. Batman Begins, a reboot that compares to Star Trek well, opened to $48 million on the way to $205 million. That's a 4.27 multiplier. If Star Trek could manage that kind of a multiplier, we're looking at a $300 million hit. Due to the sci-fi nature of the story, I don't know how likely that is, but as good word spreads and Trekkies line up again and again to see this, I'm willing to go on record saying that I think $250 million is a likely achievement for Star Trek. It could surpass that, but I certainly think it will make it there. We'll have to wait and see!

Next, we have X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Isn't it weird to think that last week, this film is all anyone could talk about? With the Enterprise now clearly in its way, though, Wolverine feels like a distant memory, and its harsh second weekend drop isn't helping out. This weekend, Wolverine fell a massive 69% to $26.4 million (exactly what I predicted!), for a ten day total of $129 million. To be clear: this is not good. The Fox film cost $150 million to make, and that's not including the HUGE costs of advertising and reshoots. Following its current trajectory, $170 million seems like a likely finish for Wolverine. So are you satisfied with its gross? You do the math. Perhaps Fox should've taken a page out of Paramount's book and spent a longer time crafting a great movie, because even though Trek didn't open as big as Wolverine, it'll be sticking around a lot longer!

Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past performed like a champ this weekend. After last week's slightly underwhelming $15.2 million debut, the Matthew McConaughey romantic comedy, fell just 33% to $10.3 million this week. Ghosts currently sits with $30.1 million, but with a few more drops like this over the next few weeks, Warner Brothers could have a nice $50-55 million little hit on their hands.

Meanwhile, Obsessed has already exceeded that! With a 46% drop to $6.6 million, the Beyonce/Ali Larter catfight film is once again validating my theory about the Era of Easy Entertainment, and after seventeeen days, Obsessed grossed $56.2 million. (That's about one dollar for every hair that got ripped out of Beyonce's weave during the making of this film!) The cheap thriller will be remembered as a solid Spring success.

The only other new opener this weekend was Next Day Air, an urban drug comedy starring Donald Faison. The Summit film failed to catch on with audiences or critics, and it only managed to pull in $4.1 million during its opening frame.

Finally, I just want to give a shout out to Monsters Vs. Aliens. The Dreamworks film from way back in March has performed admirably after its $58 million debut. Currently Monsters has multiplied its opening by about 3.2, giving it a $186 million total. Big international sales as well as DVD revenue will push this film, budgeted at $175 million, into the black.

Top 12 Actuals For May 8-10

#	Movie Title	3-Day Gross	% Change	AVG.	Total
1	Star Trek	$75,204,289	New	$21,190	$79,204,289
2	X-Men Origins: Wolverine	$26,408,288	-69%	$6,438	$129,032,435
3	Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past	$10,258,141	-33%	$3,231	$30,054,386
4	Obsessed	$6,560,266	-46%	$2,521	$56,207,576
5	17 Again	$4,232,422	-33%	$1,458	$53,994,515
6	Next Day Air	$4,111,043	New	$3,613	$4,111,043
7	The Soloist	$3,949,430	-30%	$1,890	$23,845,177
8	Monsters Vs. Aliens	$3,260,440	-44%	$1,492	$186,774,042
9	Earth	$2,666,219	-39%	$1,486	$26,264,242
10	Hannah Montana The Movie	$2,193,043	-47%	$953	$73,861,795
11	Fighting	$2,010,075	-50%	$1,040	$20,453,095
12	State Of Play	$1,918,295	-48%	$1,245	$33,986,760

All Numbers Provided By Exhibitor Relations Co.

This weekend, the Top 12 films grossed a fantastic $142.7 million, a 21.3% increase over the same weekend last year! Year-to-date, box office revenue is up 14% and attendance is up by 12%!