Simon Pegg: 'Star Trek Beyond' failed due to poor marketing

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Simon Pegg has taken aim at the ‘poor marketing’ which surround the release of Star Trek Beyond, blaming that for the movie’s box office failure.

The third instalment in J.J. Abrams’ rebooted Star Trek series, directed by Justin Lin and co-written by Pegg, made a notably disappointing $343 million at the worldwide box office.

Taking into account its substantial $185 million production costs, plus likely the same again in promotion and other expenditure for Paramount Pictures, its possible that the movie may only have broken even.

Either way, for a movie in a blockbuster sci-fi franchise, $343 million is not enough to keep the accountants happy.

“I think it was poorly marketed to be honest,” he told Geek Exchange.

“If you look at a film like Suicide Squad, that was around for such a long time before it finally came out and people were so aware of it.

“Whereas with Star Trek Beyond, it was left too late before they started their marketing push.

“It still did great business, but it was disappointing compared to Into Darkness.”

Pegg also hammered the decision to use the Beastie Boys classic Sabotage in the film’s trailer.

The third instalment in J.J. Abrams’ rebooted Star Trek series, directed by Justin Lin and co-written by Pegg, made a notably disappointing $343 million at the worldwide box office.

Taking into account its substantial $185 million production costs, plus likely the same again in promotion and other expenditure for Paramount Pictures, its possible that the movie may only have broken even.

Either way, for a movie in a blockbuster sci-fi franchise, $343 million is not enough to keep the accountants happy.

“I think it was poorly marketed to be honest,” he told Geek Exchange.

“If you look at a film like Suicide Squad, that was around for such a long time before it finally came out and people were so aware of it.

“Whereas with Star Trek Beyond, it was left too late before they started their marketing push.

“It still did great business, but it was disappointing compared to Into Darkness.”

Pegg also hammered the decision to use the Beastie Boys classic Sabotage in the film’s trailer.

“I was really angry about that,” he went on.

“Because it used Sabotage, which was our surprise moment in the end. It was supposed to be a very fun and heightened twist, and something that was a big surprise and they blew it in the first trailer, which really annoyed me.

“They also made the film look like a boneheaded action film. And they were scared, I think, of mentioning the 50th Anniversary. It was fumbled as a thing; they didn’t know what to do with it and it’s a real shame. But I came away from it really, really happy and very proud of it.”

As for the discussed involvement of Quentin Tarantino in the possible future of the franchise, Pegg is all up for it.

“There’s a script that’s been written, and there’s also the story of Quentin Tarantino coming and chatting with J.J. about an idea that he’s had for a long time,” he added.

“That idea is going into the writer’s room to be looked at. I think it might take something like him to restart it. It’s an interesting proposition, although I don’t know if that means everybody will be blowing each other’s heads off with phasers and calling Klingons mother f*****s, but, who knows, that could be fun.”

Pegg is next up in Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, out across the UK from March 29.