2. It Failed To Bring In the Youths
This one is mind-boggiling. Action/adventure movies aren't just meant to appeal to males, they are made for the under-25 crowd. My generation let Paramount down big time. During its domestic opening weekend,
Star Trek Into Darkness's audience was significantly older. A whopping 73% of the people who saw it were over 25. Again, the first film performed better in this department, as only 65% of the audience opening weekend was over 25. While it makes sense that people of all ages would go see a
Star Trek movie (the franchise, which has been around since 1966, has generations of fans), the numbers still shouldn't be that high. The trailers and TV spots promised a fast-paced, thrilling, action-heavy outing, which is usually the ticket to box office gold during the summer.
Iron Man 3 - like most summer films - did a majority of its business in its first weekend ($174.1 million the first three days) and with the two weeks separating Tony Stark from Captain Kirk, everyone assumed
Star Trek Into Darkness would have its day in the sun. However,
Iron Man 3 made $35.7 million during
Trek's opening weekend to finish in second place. When the 2009 film opened, the second-placed movie was
X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which saw a catastrophic 69% drop to bring in $26.4 million. Shows you what word-of-mouth can do to the box office. The prospects of
Into Darkness attracting younger audiences will likely diminish as it continues its box office run.
Fast and Furious 6 is designed almost exclusively for under-25 moviegoers and
The Hangover Part III should bring in a similar crowd. With
Man of Steel on the horizon as well, there's not much hope for the
Trek sequel to turn things around.