‘Star Trek’ stuns the competition with $79.2 million debut, even higher than Sunday estimate

‘Star Trek’ stuns competition with $79.2M debut

LOS ANGELES — “Star Trek” had an even more galactic opening weekend than originally estimated.

According to final studio numbers Monday, director J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the revered sci-fi franchise made $79.2 million from late Thursday night through Sunday. That’s nearly $3 million more than Paramount Pictures expected.

Final numbers on big movies often differ from earlier projections, because Sunday figures are based on estimates of how big the crowds will be that day.

“Star Trek” far surpassed the $50 million or so the studio figured it would make, with the help of massive critical acclaim and strong word of mouth.

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.com:

1. “Star Trek,” Paramount, $75,204,289, 3,849 locations, $19,539 average, $79,204,289, one week.

2. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” Fox, $26,408,288, 4,102 locations, $6,438 average, $129,032,435, two weeks.

3. “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,” Warner Bros., $10,258,141, 3,175 locations, $3,231 average, $30,054,386, two weeks.

4. “Obsessed,” Sony Screen Gems, $6,560,266, 2,602 locations, $2,521 average, $56,207,576, three weeks.

5. “17 Again,” Warner Bros., $4,232,422, 2,903 locations, $1,458 average, $53,994,515, four weeks.

6. “Next Day Air,” Summit, $4,111,043, 1,138 locations, $3,613 average, $4,111,043, one week.

7. “The Soloist,” Paramount, $3,949,430, 2,090 locations, $1,890 average, $23,845,177, three weeks.

8. “Monsters vs. Aliens,” Paramount, $3,260,440, 2,185 locations, $1,492 average, $186,774,092, seven weeks.

9. “Earth,” Disney, $2,666,219, 1,794 locations, $1,486 average, $26,264,242, three weeks.

10. “Hannah Montana: The Movie,” Disney, $2,193,043, 2,301 locations, $953 average, $73,861,795, five weeks.

11. “Fighting,” Universal, $2,010,075, 1,933 locations, $1,040 average, $20,453,095, three weeks.

12. “State of Play,” Universal, $1,918,295, 1,541 locations, $1,245 average, $33,986,760, four weeks.

13. “Fast & Furious,” Universal, $1,254,010, 1,409 locations, $890 average, $151,798,755, six weeks.

14. “I Love You, Man,” Paramount, $507,667, 407 locations, $1,247 average, $70,095,671, eight weeks.

15. “Taken,” Fox, $448,375, 385 locations, $1,165 average, $144,197,013, 15 weeks.

16. “Knowing,” Summit, $303,297, 373 locations, $813 average, $78,401,631, eight weeks.

17. “Sunshine Cleaning,” Overture, $290,093, 328 locations, $884 average, $10,897,713, nine weeks.

18. “Is Anybody There?,” Story Island Entertainment, $283,909, 157 locations, $1,808 average, $907,404, four weeks.

19. “Under the Sea 3D,” Warner Bros., $231,147, 40 locations, $5,779 average, $7,255,949, 13 weeks.

20. “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” Sony/Columbia, $226,886, 267 locations, $850 average, $145,790,203, 17 weeks.

On the Net:

www.hollywood.com/boxoffice

Universal Pictures, Focus Features and Rogue Pictures are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co.; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; DreamWorks, Paramount and Paramount Vantage are divisions of Viacom Inc.; Disney’s parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros., New Line, Warner Independent and Picturehouse are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a consortium of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp., Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group; Lionsgate is owned by Lionsgate Entertainment Corp.; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.