When you roll your film out on IMAX screens by the hundreds Wednesday night, your box office take is going to look inflated. When you add late Thursday non-IMAX shows to it, all the more.
That $13-14 million head start puts “Star Trek Into Darkness” within range of its predicted $100 million 4 (4.5) day opening “weekend.” Because the film added another $27 million or so in sales Friday. It’s over $40 as of Saturday AM.
And Deadline.com reports that it did over $47 million overseas.
That’s better than “Trek I,” which managed $79 on its opening weekend. But it wasn’t in 3D, and it wasn’t playing on hundreds of IMAX screens, and it didn’t have a four-day opening.
Looked at that way, the film is selling fewer tickets on its opening weekend. And with “Fast & Furious 6” opening May 24, it will only win one weekend box office race. It’ll be off filmgoers’ radar sooner.
Reviews will prop it up for a bit. But this summer is so front-loaded with franchise pictures and potential blockbusters that you have to wonder if there’ll be any money left by the time “Man of Steel” opens in a month.
Movie Nation 
Good point. We’re pretty saturated with electronic entertainment.
Also, if studios want multiple blockbusters, we need economic growth and a wealthy populace. But public policy is going in the other direction.