The Box Office of Star Trek

The business and box office of movies do interest me, as it is sometimes very interesting to compare the box office gross with not only the budget the film companies spent on making the movie, but also with the general critical reception of the films.

Some films are runaway successes at the box office yet panned by the critics.

Also it is a n unwritten rule that the budget for the film contains production costs which include pre and post production, but not the marketing and advertising budget. Normally Hollywood studios spend roughly the same again as their budget in advertising. So a film has to really gross double it’s budget in order to be a success.

Paramount Pictures have had a gold mine on their hands with their highly successful Star Trek TV series which spawned 4 spin off shows from the original 1960s show, as well as comic books, animated shows and merchandise.

But what of the films?

Well here is some info on their budget and gross. I have left out critical ratings, perhaps you can go have a look at Rotten Tomatoes (even though personally I think that they have some very odd ratings for well established classic movies).

Film	Year	Budget $m	Gross $m
Star Trek: The Motion Picture	1979	46	139
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan	1982	11	97
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock	1984	16	87
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home	1986	21	133
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier	1989	33	63
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country	1991	27	97
Star Trek: Generations	1994	35	118
Star Trek: First Contact	1996	45	146
Star Trek: Insurrection	1998	58	112
Star Trek: Nemesis	2002	60	67
Star Trek	2009	150	385

The general consensus for the Star Trek movies is that the very best were The Wrath of Khan, The Voyage Home and First Contact, with The Final Frontier being the worst.

The original 1979 movie is always slagged off for being dull and boring, but I actually love that movie as I think it represents the original show which was always about big ideas and much more than space opera ray guns. And you can see it certainly made a good return for its money.

These figures do not take into account inflation, which is always to be remembered when discussing or comparing a film’s box office gross.

The next instalment of the franchise comes this summer with Star Trek Into Darkness.

Box Office Gross of James Cameron

For those of you interested in the box office of movies, here is a presentation that looks at the movies of James Cameron and the gross his movies have accumulated.

http://www.slideshare.net/Marcus9000/show-business-films-of-james-cameron

Tolkien Family and The Lord of the Rings

With The Hobbit doing well at the Box Office, I found this interesting article on the Tolkien family and how they perhaps didn't make the millions people assume from the Lord of the Rings movies.

www.omg-facts.com/Other/Why-did-the-Tolkien-family-feel-ripped-o/55096?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=first

The Hobbit rises to expectations

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has lived up to expectations dominating the US box office earning $84.8 million for Peter Jackson’s first part in a new Middle Earth trilogy.

The film is a prequel to the Oscar winning The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the book was actually written first by J. R. R. Tolkein. It tells of homely hobbit Bilbo Baggins and his adventures with wizard Gandalf and a group of merry dwarves en route to do battle with the evil gold hoarding dragon, Smaug.

The movie stars Martin Freeman (from The Office and Sherlock), a host of British faces familiar from TV (Richard Armitrage, James Nesbitt and Ken Stott) and also has Sir Ian McKellen reprising his role as Gandalf the Grey.

Peter Jackson, the Kiwi director famous for Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Heavenly Creatures and an early spate of low budget zombie movies, was originally only meant to produce one film which became two parts then when Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro left the project, he took the reigns, much to the delight of the Rings fans. Jackson then decided to make the movie into a trilogy – something which has encountered some criticism as a form of commercialism.

However, can you blame Jackson or New Line for trying to milk this cash cow before it finally ends? It is hard to see where the cinematic world of Middle Earth can go after the last of these films is released in December 2014.

Of course perhaps the answer lies online and in the world of videogames, and there is still The Silmarillion, which could be made into a movie. However that book is not exactly fit for the cinema as it is a collection of stories, poems and myths created by Tolkein. But I am sure someone will probably give it a go to cash in.

The Lord of the Rings film trilogy grossed $2.9 billion, so it is no wonder that we perhaps haven’t seen the end of Middle Earth yet.

Avatar wins big at the Golden Globes

James Cameron's sci-fi epic Avatar has won Best Picture and Best Director at the Golden Globes Awards Ceremony in Hollywood.

The Golden Globes are a good indicator of what the Academy will vote for in March. The Golden Globes are actually made up of all the Foreign Press in Hollywood, so it again shows the global appeal of the 3-D movie.

Avatar's current gross is $1.6 billion. This has been done in 4 weeks. It is only now $200 million from beating Titanic as the overall box office champ. Who directed Titanic? None other than James Cameron!

Looking at Avatar just illustrates what a risky yet lucrative business Hollywood is. Avatar cost somewhere in the region of $500 million to create, and normally you have to add another $200 million in marketing and advertising, so it just shows that to start making a profit Avatar had to rake in $700 million!

But James Cameron is used to this. T2, True Lies, and Titanic, were all the most expensive films ever at the time. All were blockbusters.

Curiously, Cameron has went for the same slot in the year as Titanic. The December/January period is a quiet one for cinema generally, and by launching the film at this time, he is avoiding the summer blockbusters of May-August, and also avoiding the Oscar worthies who launch in October/November.

Even at $1.6 billion (with 2 weeks of that in December) Avatar may have legs yet. Titanic was released in December 1997, but actually grossed more in 1998. So Avatar may become the first movie to break the $2 billion mark, and who knows where it might end up? Is $3 billion out of the question?

Repeat viewings and a successful foreign (to the USA) market has raised hopes. Normally a Hollywood film that is a success does more box office in the USA than the rest of the world combined. However, since 1997/98, more and more former Eastern Bloc nations have cinemas, so Avatar is bound to do better in Russia et al than Titanic did.

No doubt Avatar's video/DVD/blu ray sales will be massive also... just in time for 3-D TV!

What next for Cameron? President? (He's born in Canada, so he's ruled out!)