WINNER OF THE WEEK:Star Trek Into Darkness. J.J. Abrams and his cast ofStar TrekMuppet Babies pretty much had the film galaxy all to themselves this weekend. With no other movie debuting in wide release, Abrams secondTrekadventure easily won the weekend with an estimated $70.6 million take fromFridaytoSunday. Add in the screeningson Wednesday at midnightand all dayThursday, and the space sequel has a total take so far of $84.1 million.
That would all be terrific news if Paramount hadnt been counting on a $100 million weekend. Indeed, the film debuted slightly lower than 2009sStar Trek($75.2 million fromFridaytoSunday, plus another $4.0 million fromThursdayscreenings). And that film didnt benefit from 3D surcharges, asInto Darknessdid.
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Its hard to say why thisTrekinstallment didnt do better. After all, it not only had 3D fees going for it; it also had generally positive reviews and rapturous word-of-mouth (an A from CinemaScore). Maybe the marketing wasnt as ubiquitous as it could have been;a merchandising disputebetween Abrams andTrekcharacter rights-holder CBS kept licensed products off retailers shelves. Or maybe its just that, after 47 years,Trekstill has yet to prove its allure to the audience beyond the loyal fanboys.
LOSER OF THE WEEK: Every non-tentpole movie. Theres very little oxygen in space and even less at the multiples, whereStar Trek,Iron Man 3, andThe Great Gatsbywere sucking it all up. Iron Man 3, whichon Thursdaybecame one of only 16 movies in history to earn more than $1 billion worldwide (after just 23 days in release), slipped to second place after two weeks at Number One and earned another estimated $35.2 million in North America, for a domestic total of $337.1 million.Gatsbyalso dropped one notch, to third place, on estimated earnings of $23.4 million, for a two-weekend total of $90.2 million.
After that, the drop-off was steep. No other movie earned more than $3.1 million this weekend; thats the estimated take of Number Four filmPain and Gain, which has earned $46.6 million over four weeks. Caveman cartoonThe Croodsremains in the top five after nine weeks, coming in fifth with an estimated $2.8 million, for a total so far of $176.8 million.
LIGHTEN UP, FRANCES: The only movie that dared open oppositeInto Darknessthis weekend was Noah Baumbachs black-and-white indie dramedyFrances Ha, which opened on just four screens but earned an estimated $33,500 on each. Thats the best per-screen average of the week, by far;Star Trekearned a per-screen average of $18,241.
Other limited-release movies saw business among non-Trekkies boom as well.The Icemansaw sales rise more than 300 percent over last week after it added another 148 screens (for a total of 165), grossing an estimated $452,000 this weekend, for a three-week total of $752,000. Also adding screens and sales wereKon-Tiki(which grossed an estimated $153,000 this weekend, for a total of $415,600),Stories We Tell(another estimated $137,000, for a 10-day total of $180,000), andLove Is All You Need(another estimated $72,700, for a three-week total of $176,000).Most cleverly of all, The Weinstein Companys months-old animated hitEscape From Planet Earth, playing on jut 254 screens last week, added another 439 screens in its 14thweek and was rewarded with an estimated $222,000, up 118 percent from last week, for a total so far of $55.6 million. The Weinsteins must have figured that, if you couldnt get into seeStar Trek, the next best thing was their sci-fi cartoon starring the voice of the original Captain Kirk.