Paramount has shuffled the release schedule for several films, including the new Star Trek film:
“Star Trek” arguably was the biggest film moved, with the intended Christmas Day release now set for the first prime date in the following summer boxoffice season: May 8, 2009. But “Trek” appears something of an exception in the mix of itinerant pics, with its shift unrelated to script or cast considerations.
” ‘Star Trek’ is moving to summer because its has so much boxoffice potential,” Par spokesman Michael Vollman said. “It does not need any script tweaks. They’re two-thirds of the way through shooting, and we would have delivered a great movie at Christmas.”
February 14th, 2008 at 7:21 am
If they wanted a huge box office draw, they should’ve kept it’s release at Christmas where it would’ve been the biggest movie out. Now with a summer release, it’ll be mixed with a huge bag of big blockbusters and may get lost in the race (especially when you consider Star Trek’s box office history… which is not too great).
February 14th, 2008 at 7:26 am
They should’ve kept the release for Christmas because THAN it would’ve been the biggest box office draw. It would’ve been one of the only big films out at the time. Now with a summer release, it’ll be mixed with a bunch of other big blockbusters and maybe get lost in the race. Star Trek’s box office history isn’t all that spectacular.
February 14th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Whoops… sorry for posting that twice. It never showed up the first time so I posted it a second time and then they both showed up.
February 14th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Perhaps they are thinking that the next Harry Potter (Nov 21st) will still be grabbing box office around xmas time, or they think that The Day the Earth Stood Still will grab some of the same audience (Dec 12th). I doubt Fame (Dec 25th) will be attracting the same crowd for the most part. Sucks, because I’ve been looking forward to Star Trek!
February 14th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Now I’m just waiting for someone to re-edit the current Star Trek trailer so at the end - you hear SFX: machinery breaking down. The lights go out. They cross-out Christmas 2008 and write May 2009.
February 14th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Yeah… Trek’s certainly done decent, respectable box office. With only one real exception (the god-awful Nemesis), they’ve all turned a tidy profit for Paramount. Even ST 5 (also a pretty lousy film) made a small profit.
Every so often a Trek film manages to break through into the mainstream — ST 4 and First Contact in particular. ST 2 wasn’t as big, but that’s a film where its reputation has just grown by leaps and bounds over the years. I know a lot of non-Trekkers who aboslutely love that movie.
I’m just not sold on this “re-imagining” or whatever the hell it’s supposed to be. Seems like a divisive film amongst the fans, and I’m not sure what it’s supposed to offer non-fans that the first ten movies didn’t. TNG’s massive success on TV didn’t really translate into movie success (First Contact aside), so I don’t see this being the blockbuster some people think this will be.
Xmas Day was an excellent time for this movie. Something the family could go to, if they were so inclined, and it’ll be a month after Harry Potter’s release. It had no competition. Now, it’ll have a big opening weekend but probably fall off sharply as the summer ‘09 season commences.
February 14th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
“Re-imagining” is best that way we don’t have to go through a lot of continuity issues the series had. It worked for Battlestar Galactica.