The Weekend Report

It was another Kirk at the can as Star Trek Beyond steered the latest Enterprise to an estimated $59.4 million. Two other new national releases duked it out for positions four and five with the slightest edge for the horror entry Lights Out with $21.2 million. The animated franchise Ice Age: Collision Course was right behind at $20.8 million.

In limited wide release the Brit telly comedy staple Absolutely Fabulous translated well to the big screen with a $1.9 million box office at 313. The adversarial Hillary’s America received a stinging endorsement of $3.8 million pre-Philly convention, and slow rollouts of Café Society and Captain America held extremely well.

In the niches, it was another potent opening from India with Kabali opening to $4.2 million. Also strong were Filipino Imagine You & Me with a $232,000 tally from 28 venues and South Korean zombie apocalypse saga Train to Busan grossing $241,000 at a comparable 28 stations.

Among exclusive newcomers the inside-comedy dramedy Don’t Think Twice generated a laugh riot of $86,500 from a single Manhattan room.

Revenues were just shy of $200 million for a significant 21% boost from last weekend. It was a 31% improvement from 2015 when the second weekend of Ant-Man edged out the debut of Pixels with respective grosses of $24.9 million and $20 million.

Star Trek Beyond proved the truth of live long and prosper. The rebooted franchise from go-to reinventor J.J. Abrams had high-end expectations of $60 million and a critical response that was positive, if contained. Fan boys were 57% of the opening weekend audience with 73% of viewers aged 25-years and older. The core 18-34-year old demo was 31% of the big picture.

Beyond bowed day-and-date in 37 international markets to an estimated $30 million. The UK was the top grosser at $6.1 million with Germany contributing $4.5 million and Russia adding $3.3 million to the mix.

The weekend surprise was the showdown between Lights Out and Ice Age: Collision Course that wasn’t supposed to even be close. The low-budget chiller was tracking at a solid bow of about $15 million. Meanwhile, though, the fifth outing of the animated prehistoric critters has been steadily declining at the domestic box office, pundits projected $23- $25 million, competitive with The Secret Life of Pets.

The extra utz for Lights Out came from an unexpected female tilt of 54%. There was also a hefty 37% of tickets buyers aged 18-years and older with 18-34 year olds adding another 37% to the overall audience. The film also trickled out in 30 foreign flags to about $8 million with the only major territories Australia and Russia bowing respectively with $1.7 million and $800,000.

Ice Age may have cooled on the domestic front but its overseas box office is staggering; it’s the all-time biggest animated franchise with a tally in excess of $3 billion globally. It bowed internationally three weeks ago and going into the present weekend had amassed $150 million. The opening weekend domestic audience was 54% female with 69% identifying as families.

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