J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Still Needs to Gross $19 Mill to be Highest Grossing Trek Ever

[Brian Damage]

Another weekend has gone by, and "Star Trek" is staying strong at the box office, pulling in another $8 million and wrapping up Sunday with more than $222 million.

It's by far the highest-grossing movie in Star Trek history in hard cash, and at the moment the top-grossing movie of 2009. But some are beginning to wonder if it can surpass the inflation-adjusted box office mark of 1979's "Star Trek: The Motion Picture."

In May, Airlock Alpha explored inflation-adjusted box office takes for all 10 Star Trek movies that have come before, and as expected, "Star Trek XI" has systematically knocked every single one of them off. Except "The Motion Picture."

The first film in the franchise earned $82.3 million in 1979 currency, which translates to about $240.9 million today. That leaves "Star Trek XI" nearly $19 million short so far, and with it coming toward the end of its movie theater run ... can it actually make it over the $241 million mark?

There is a small chance it can, actually. "Star Trek" finished in the fifth spot at the box office, even finishing ahead of movies that came out after it, and only witnessing a 35 percent drop week to week.

In Sunday's box office breakout, provided by ShowBiz Data, "Star Trek" earned $2.3 million, and was still being shown on almost the same number of screens as "The Hangover," which reportedly just edged "Up" for the weekend box office title after a strong Sunday. That was just 37 percent off the week before, and brought its total box office to $222.7 million.

Its drop was the best, second only to "Up," which had a 35 percent week-over-week drop. Nothing else could even hang close. "Terminator: Salvation" lost 52 percent week-over-week to finish just a few thousand dollars behind "Star Trek," while "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" is down 53 percent with $485,000.

If "Star Trek" were to losing 50 percent of its box office each weekend, beginning with its upcoming sixth week, not counting weekday box office numbers, the film would earn about $4.2 million next week, $2.1 million the week after, $1 million in its eighth week and $500,000 in Week 9. That equals about $7.6 million, and bring "Star Trek" to just over $230 million.

"Star Trek," however, has proven to have some staying power, and could possibly still be bringing in decent amounts of money even when "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" premieres June 19.

So if "Star Trek" can stay within the 40 percent audience erosion range, it would move to $5 million this weekend, $3 million the week after, $1.8 million after that, then $1.1 million, and finishing off with $653,000. That would bring the rest of its run to $11.5 million, bringing it to $233 million, and still falling short.

In the end, however, does it really matter? When "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" premiered, it was just two years after "Star Wars" first hit theaters and became a blockbuster, and hype was continuing with "Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back." It had been more than a decade since Kirk and his crew made something new that wasn't animated, and audiences were crying out for more.

In comparison, "Star Trek XI" does come seven years after "Star Trek: Nemesis," but only a few years since "Star Trek: Enterprise" ended its run on the former UPN. It's been one of the longer gaps in the Star Trek franchise in recent history, but not an insurmountable one.

And at the end of the day, "Star Trek XI" has earned far more than even Paramount expected, and there's no doubt that the voyages of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the Enterprise will continue in more blockbuster movies. And that's what matters the most.

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