The much anticipated third film in the J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek era hit theaters Friday in North America. It exceeded expectations and grossed $60 million worldwide for a total of $89 million in the global market against a budget of $185 million.
“Star Trek Beyond” is tied with its prequel “Into Darkness” as the most expensive film in the franchise. ‘Into Darkness’ fared much better in its opening weekend but ended up grossing nearly $470 million. ‘Beyond’ will likely surpass that amount with projections from Paramount in the $650 million range. Beyond will be boosted when it in total will open up globally in 74 markets. It has already fared well in IMAX sales.
J.J. Abrams acted as a producer for the film and Justin Lin, who is most famous for reviving the “Fast and Furious Franchise”, took Abrams place. Abrams transition to the Star Wars franchise gave him less direction of ‘Beyond’ but Lin stayed faithful to the basis of the last two films directed by Abrams with much emphasis on special-effects, and the performances of the iconic characters of Captain James T. Kirk, reprised by Chris Pine and Commander Spock, reprised by Zachary Quinto. Critics noted the great chemistry, something that Lin applied from his work on the Furious franchise and his talent of coordinating realistic stunts. The film was praised by New York Times, A.O Scott with much of it towards Lin, the performances and the screenplay which was written by Simon Pegg, who reprises his role as Scotty in the film.
“In his work on the “Fast and Furious” movies, Mr. Lin has shown a playful willingness to extend – and if necessary suspend – the laws of physics, and his visual brashness can be a refreshing antidote to Mr. Abrams’s fussy tries to combine digital spectacle with old-fashioned cinematic discipline.” -A.O Scott
The movie has received a score of 84 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film is also noted for its tributes to the deaths of the original Spock in Leonard Nimoy, who died in pre-production, and Anton Yelchin, who died at the age of 27 from an automobile accident. Yelchin died after filming had wrapped and play Chekhov in the previous two Trek films as well. The death was alarming, because of Yelchin’s bright work in and around Hollywood since he was a child.
