Star Trek XI - Record Setting $79 Million Opening Weekend Box Office!

The final Opening Weekend Box Office earnings for Star Trek XI have been tabulated, and the numbers are staggering in comparison to the past performances of this franchise.

Domestically, the new Abrams film earned a total of $79,204,289 to come in first place against its competitors on the May 8 - 10, 2009 weekend.
The individual daily receipts broke down as follows:
* Thursday: $4.0 M
* Friday: $26.89 M
* Saturday: $27.25 M
* Sunday: $21.06 M
It was reported that Paramount Pictures had originally anticipated a $50 M domestic opening weekend performance; so the actual earnings greatly exceeded expectations.

Internationally, Star Trek XI generated a respectable $35.5 million; for a worldwide total box office of $114.7 million. The top overseas Box Office markets were:
* United Kingdom: $8.8 M
* Germany: $4.6 M
* Australia: $ 3.4 M
* France: $2.8 M
* Russia: $2.3 M
* South Korea: $2.2 M
* Spain: $1.6 M
The film was offered in 54 markets internationally, and came in first place in 23 of them.

Domestically, $8.3 M of earnings was generated from performances at IMAX theatres. Star Trek XI played at 138 different IMAX locations; and these earnings represented a new IMAX record for opening weekend box office.

The chart below, from Box Office Mojo, shows that Star Trek XI is already the 4th highest money maker in total domestic box office for the franchise; earning more on its opening weekend than 7 other Trek films earned during their entire runs at theatres. Clearly, to achieve this type of performance, the film is attracting a large segment of the mainstream audience in addition to its traditional Star Trek fan base.

As can be seen below, Star Trek XI, with $75.2 M for its 3 day opening weekend, smashed the previous franchise opening record of $30.7 M realized by Star Trek: First Contact in 1996...



The top 10 domestic box office draws over the May 8 - 10, 2009 weekend are shown below ...



This is extremely exciting news for the future of Star Trek!