LOS ANGELES _ With Capt. Kirk and Spock leading the USS Enterprise, Paramount's "Star Trek Beyond" took over the box office over the weekend, unseating Universal's "The Secret Life of Pets."
"Star Trek Beyond," the third installment since director J.J. Abrams revived the venerable franchise in 2009, pulled in an estimated $59.6 million in the U.S. and Canada, close to analyst expectations of about $60 million. Though down about 15 percent from its 2013 predecessor, "Star Trek Into Darkness," the opening is still considered a solid debut for the big-budget picture and a welcome success for a studio that could use a hit after the relative disappointments of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows" and "Zoolander 2."
"Star Trek Beyond" has pulled in an estimated $30 million internationally thus far.
"The headline is definitely that people came out to see it," said Megan Colligan, the studio's head of worldwide distribution. "The franchise traditionally has a great multiple, so we feel really good being able to play out through the summer. It feels great."
In "Beyond," Chris Pine returns as James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock as a surprise attack forces the Enterprise to crash-land on a mysterious world. The cast is joined by Sofia Boutella and Idris Elba. The cast and crew were dealt a tragic blow last month with the death of actor Anton Yelchin (Chekov) in a freak automobile accident at his Los Angeles home. The film was directed by Justin Lin of the "Fast & Furious" series.
Paramount Pictures, which projected a more modest $50 million to $55 million opening, needed the film to succeed to revive its sagging box-office fortunes. According to Box Office Mojo, ahead of the weekend, the studio was last among the six major Hollywood studios in terms of domestic ticket sales.
But "Star Trek Beyond" had several factors working in its favor, including a loyal fan base and largely stellar early reviews. While audiences (57 percent male, 73 percent over 25) gave the film an A-minus CinemaScore, 84 percent of critics on the review site Rotten Tomatoes rated the movie favorably. The picture appears to have beaten the unpredictable performance of sequels at the box office this year, with disappointments including "Alice Through the Looking Glass" and "Neighbors 2."
Colligan credited the film's reception, including an audience increase in youth and women, to Lin's pedigree, the lead track by and promotion help from pop star Rihanna, and the addition of Elba to the movie.
"Idris as a villain was (a) great addition," she said. "He's super cool, and I hear that women really like him."
Of the picture's domestic total to date, $8.4 million came from IMAX screens. IMAX locations accounted for four of the film's top five domestic engagements and 16 of the top 20.
"Star Trek" has been one of Paramount's most reliable franchises. The 2009 reboot posted $385 million globally, and the followup took in $467 million. With a production budget of $185 million, the "Beyond" team took advantage of rebates and tax benefits by producing the picture largely in Vancouver, British Columbia, and in Dubai. That's in contrast with the previous two installments, which Abrams wanted to shoot in Los Angeles.
Abrams, who directed the previous two "Star Treks," produced "Beyond" with Paramount and David Ellison's Skydance Entertainment.
The film is expected to do powerful business internationally, especially with Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba Group committing to invest in the picture.
Paramount has already announced a fourth "Star Trek," featuring "Thor" and "Ghostbusters" star Chris Hemsworth. This weekend's performance bodes well for the next film, Colligan said.
"I feel really confident about it," she said. "(Because) audiences are getting really discerning about what they're going to see, you can't go into the marketplace with a sequel and assume an audience that was there previously will come back. You've got to deliver, and J.J. and his team do that."
Dropping to second place was "The Secret Life of Pets," adding an estimated $29.3 million in its third week. The animated picture has grossed $260.7 million domestically to date. Adding an international take now at $63 million, the film's global gross sits at $323.7 million.
Sony's all-female led "Ghostbusters" came in third in its second weekend with an estimated $21.6 million. This brings the film's domestic gross to date to $86.9 million.
A new release from Warner Bros.' New Line Cinema, "Lights Out," tied for third with $21.6 million in the U.S and Canada, and had an international take of $8.3 million. The PG-13 supernatural horror tale beat analyst expectations of $16 million to $18 million.
"Whenever you gross more than four times the budget on opening weekend, that's a win," said Jeff Goldstein, the studio's distribution chief.
Costing just $5 million, the film about a brother and sister who are tormented by a supernatural entity when left home alone stars Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman and Maria Bello. It's directed by David Sandberg.
Moviegoers and critics alike have received the picture well. Audiences gave it a B CinemaScore, and 77 percent of Rotten Tomatoes critics rated it positively.
"Lights Out" represents another massive success for New Line's line of horror movies. The studio also had success with "The Conjuring 2," which has taken in more than $300 million worldwide since its June 10 debut.
"(New Line has) a lot of experience in this world. They're just really good at it," Goldstein said. "They've cultivated a fabulous portfolio of horror films over the years."
Finishing up the top five was fellow new release "Ice Age: Collision Course," from 20th Century Fox. The computer-animated picture pulled in $21 million in the U.S. and Canada, falling below analyst projections of $25 million. But the film already has an international take nearing $180 million.
"This franchise is still very viable on a global basis," said Chris Aronson, the studio's head of distribution. "It's a good business to be in, the 'Ice Age' business."
Many of the franchise's stars return to lend their voices to the picture, with some new additions. The cast includes Queen Latifah, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jennifer Lopez and John Leguizamo.
Audiences gave the film a B-plus CinemaScore, but only 13 percent of Rotten Tomatoes critics rated it positively.
The performance of the fifth movie in the "Ice Age" franchise is not surprising, given the dominance of pictures such as "Pets" and Disney-Pixar's "Finding Dory." But international business, where "Ice Age" movies tend to do a vast majority of their sales (ticket sales for "Ice Age: Continental Drift" were more than 80 percent international), will be important. Before its U.S. debut, the film, which had a $105 million production budget, had already logged an impressive $127 million internationally.
Aronson said that according to his studio's estimates, "Ice Age" has now surpassed "Shrek" as the highest-grossing animated franchise.
Films of note in limited releases include "Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie," from Fox Searchlight. The R-rated comedy starring Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders took in an estimated $1.9 million on a little over 300 screens, for a per-screen average of about $6,006.
Another new release, "Don't Think Twice" from the Film Arcade, released exclusively at New York's Landmark Sunshine to $90,126, giving the film the highest per-screen average of the year. The movie by Mike Birbiglia follows the ups and downs of an improv comedy troupe as its members grapple with resentment and jealousy when only one of them is cast on a long-running sketch-comedy TV show.
Produced by "This American Life's" Ira Glass and Cold Iron Pictures' Miranda Bailey and Amanda Marshall, the picture _ currently at 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes _ has a cast including Birbiglia, Keegan-Michael Key and Gillian Jacobs. It expands to Los Angeles and Chicago on Friday and nationwide in August.
In its second week, Woody Allen's "Cafe Society" expanded to 50 locations. If the $875,000 projection by Lionsgate and Amazon Studios holds, the film's domestic gross to date will near $1.4 million.
This week, STX Entertainment's "Bad Moms," Universal's "Jason Bourne" and Lionsgate's "Nerve" premiere.
