'Star Trek' boldly beams up $72.5 million in opening weekend

Weekend gross: $76,500,000 Total gross: $76,500,000 (Paramount Pictures)

Positive reviews and word-of-mouth point to a strong run for the sci-fi revival. But 'Wolverine' loses its box office bite.

"Star Trek" has successfully warped into the mainstream, generating $72.5 million in U.S. ticket sales on its opening weekend.Paramount's relaunch of the sci-fi franchise, which in the past decade has appealed to declining numbers of core fans on TV and the big screen, came in at the high end of survey-based estimates and right in the heart of a solid summer event movie opening.The J.J. Abrams-directed film sold an extra $4 million worth of tickets at Thursday evening shows, bringing its total to $76.5 million.Overseas ticket sales information wasn't immediately available Sunday morning, but Paramount's president of worldwide marketing, distributions and operations, Rob Moore, said early indications were that it was performing similarly to "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" in key markets like Great Britain, Germany and Australia.
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Strong foreign ticket sales will be crucial to the long-term success of "Star Trek," which cost about $140 million to make by Paramount and co-financier Spyglass. A similar amount will be spent on marketing and distributing the movie.Also key: A long life at theaters in the U.S. "Star Trek's" opening is smaller than the $85 million earned by "Wolverine," which had a similar budget, in its debut last week. But word-of-mouth appears much better on the new film, as exit polling showed audience members of all types giving it an "A," matching the almost universally positive reviews."Wolverine" is having no such luck. On its second weekend, Fox's "X-Men" spinoff tumbled 68%, high even by summer "tent-pole" standards, to $27 million. Its total gross after 10 days is $129.6 millionBy contrast, the much better reviewed second "X-Men" film, which also opened to $85 million on the same weekend in 2003, had grossed $147.7 million by this point. The difference is all the more profound when a 20% rise in ticket prices is factored in to the comparison, indicating the fourth movie in the "X-Men" franchise has not been attracting as many filmgoers as its predecessor.Warner Bros.' "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" experienced an incredibly small drop as it drew female audiences that didn't turn out strongly for "Star Trek." The romantic comedy starring Matthew McConaughey, which was released by Warner's New Line label and cost a little over $50 million, declined just 32% from its opening weekend to $10.5 million. Its total domestic gross is now $30.2 million."Girlfriends'" weekend will undoubtedly be helped by Mothers Day, when more women get to make the movie choice. Warner is projecting a much healthier Sunday for its picture than Paramount and Fox did, comparatively, for theirs.Summit Entertainment's "Next Day Air," the only other film to open in wide release this weekend, didn't do too well with its target audience, young African-American and Latino males, grossing just $4 million.