Box Office - 'Star Trek' Sets Phasers to $76 Million

It fell a few million dollars short of my personal projection, but Star Trek exceeded estimates from most other analysts, debuting with $76.5 million in its first three-plus days at the box office. It did, however, set a new mark for the second weekend in May, topping the old record held by Van Helsing by about $25 million. The numbers from Box Office Mojo show a fairly sizable tumble on Sunday (down 33% from Saturday's total), but otherwise, it's all good news for Trek, which should have the kind of positive word of mouth that X-Men Origins: Wolverine has not enjoyed. The new J.J. Abrams reboot should become the second highest grossing Star Trek movie ever in another two or three days and it will be the top film in the series next weekend. Star Trek benefits from having another week without a direct competitor; it's hard to say that Angels & Demons is going for the same audience. That gives Trek a few extra days of attention in a very crowded May, which could help it significantly in the long run. Wolverine lost almost 70% of its opening weekend audience, which signals a pretty quick death for the Marvel hero. Expectations had to be higher than $180 - $200 Million, but that appears to be where this one is headed. Its ten-day total of $130 million is off Iron Man's mark by almost $50 million. That's not good. The only other new release this weekend was Next Day Air, but since nobody saw it, how could anyone be interested in its box office totals? A big winner this year is Obsessed, which has pretty quietly amassed $56 million, roughly as much as The Soloist, Crank: High Voltage, and Observe and Report combined. And it will continue to climb to the $80 million range, since it's the only film of its kind in theaters for a good long while. The Top Five:
1 - Star Trek ($76.5 million) *four-day total
2 - Wolverine ($27 million)
3 - Ghosts of Girlfriends Past ($10.5 million)
4 - Obsessed ($6.6 million)
5 - 17 Again ($4.5 million)