Box Office Weekend: Star Trek Goes Above and Beyond

While it has a lot of ground here and abroad to cover for its $185 million budgetary costs, Star Trek Beyond still took the weekend with an estimated $59.6 million, and with critical praise it appears to have enough positive buzz to keep afloat for long enough to turn a profit. It dethroned two-time first-place finisher The Secret Life of Pets, which ended the weekend with an estimated $29.3 million and $260.7 million in domestic gross for three weeks…remarkable performance for a film that cost $75 million, though a comparatively lackluster performance from the studio who has made billions so far with its Despicable Me franchise. Despite critical praise, the beleaguered $144 million production of Ghostbusters is suffering worldwide, potentially from both a campaign against the film since the release of its first trailer and a lack of release in China…in any case, the estimated $21.6 million has added to a worldwide total of $122.9 million, far below its break-even point.

Lights Out has gotten some good words from critics, but despite tying Ghostbusters this week with an estimated $21.6 million, the horror flick only cost $4.9 million to make, enjoying profound success on its small budget. With an estimated $21 million opening, the opposite is true for $105 million-costing Ice Age: Collision Course. The fifth film in the series is apparently beginning to show its age with domestic audiences, but worldwide the film is approaching break-even numbers, with almost $200 million in total.

Finding Dory is moving smoothly down the list with a less than average downturn in income from last week, picking up an estimated $7.2 million (and remaining the highest-earning domestic animated film), while The Legend of Tarzan is looking more and more like it will flop in worldwide income, earning an estimated $6.4 million and $261.5 million in total. While not entering failure territory just yet, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates still needs to go quite a distance to break even on its $33 million costs…a distance that may be just a little too far out of reach.

In the final two slots, the latest political documentary from Dinesh D’Souza, Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party carried the top ten for its second week of release as it opened in over 1,200 new theaters, earning an estimated $3.7 million but the ire of the critical community. Below it, the much kindlier reviewed The Infiltrator has not proven to be a widespread moneymaker (an estimated $3.3 million for a second weekend, $12.2 million in total), but with an unreported budget, its success has yet to be determined.

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Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."

Latest posts by Seth Paul (see all)

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